Corrupted
by TheBadBoys
Summary: "Remember, the world you live in today is not the same as it was yesterday. It won't be the same tomorrow. You must adapt. You're in the jungle now." His scars were on the surface, rough on his skin and hard in his eyes. Her scars ran bone deep, invisible and soaked in whisky. Pre-Far Cry 3. OC. UST.
1. Chapter 1

****Disclaimer: I do not own anything in my stories except for the _fan_ fiction (including plots, OC's and so on). All the characters belong to the rightful owners. Any songs/poems/etc in my stories do _not_ belong to me unless stated otherwise.****

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><p><strong>Hello again.<strong>

**Fuck, it's weird posting on fanfiction again. Wow.**

**Anyway, this is not the time to be reminiscing. This is a new story. I'm terrified of posting it here to be honest, but none the less here it is.**

**This initial idea came to me when in The Far Cry Experience (during the electricity torture) Vaas asks Chris "Have you even been in love?" and then he says "I've been in love once, or maybe twice." Anyway, yeah. ****This story however is not a romance story, but there will be hints of it every now and then.**

**The story takes place _years_ before Far Cry 3!**

**The Vaas in this story is Vaas BEFORE he learns the definition of insanity, so very much still Vaas but just a little less insane. Saying this because Vaas might seem a little OOC, I know. I know, trust me I know. The reason for this is because Vaas in The Far Cry Experience and Far Cry 3 is so damn brilliant that I don't think I would ever forgive myself if I went to wreck that brilliance.**

**I didn't know whether to call this the prologue or the first chapter, so I went with the latter.**

**Anyway, enough of this. I will let you get cracking.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

"_**Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely,**_

"_**and go on till you come to the end: then stop."**_

She leaned her head back and looked out the window of the helicopter. The North Island wasn't far away anymore, and she saw deep green jungle laid out on it that seemed to go on for forever. The air was thick and warm, incredibly humid. She took a deep breath and wondered why she had taken this job again.

_Because it pays half a million fucking dollars._ Her inner voice reminded her and she wished her mind would shut up for once. It was true though, the money was why. Money was the only reason she did anything anymore.

Soon the helicopter touched down with a slight jolt on the beach, they were at the most southern point of the island as far as she knew. A privateer, who had been called by the name of Hector, sat opposite of her told her to hold out her arms, as soon as she did the man snapped handcuffs onto her.

"Isn't this a bit much?" She turned to the man next to the privateer.

The man, in his fifties with black hair and dead blue eyes, merely smiled at her. It was one of those mocking smiles. She knew that smile as she had seen many of them before. That smile made it clear that he wasn't fond of women unless he was fucking them. That smile made her want to punch it off of his face, but she couldn't. "No. It's not." Hoyt Volker was a powerful ally to have, plus he was going to pay her half a million dollars. "You know what you have to do." Hoyt said right before Hector slid the door open.

Hector climbed out and Hoyt was next. The privateer who was next to her nudged her to move and she got up from the bench. Hector grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her out of the helicopter. The hot sun was blazing down on them, burning her eyes with the brightness. Once her eyes were able to take in the surroundings she noticed two men on the beach, standing near a vehicle.

One in army green cargo pants and a black shirt, a red bandanna was tied around his neck and a huge gun strapped to his back. The other, with dark blue jeans and a red shirt, spotted a mohawk and a nasty looking scar, even from afar, on his head. She recognized him to be Vaas Montenegro, the Pirate King.

Hector stopped her a good fifty metres away from the vehicle, Hoyt kept walking forward while Vaas came forward to meet him.

"Vaas!" Volker said and threw his arms to the side, surprisingly happy to see the scarred man.

"Hoyt. What the..." Vaas spoke. She only caught small bits of the conversation. The random bits of dialogue added up to nothing coherent, but damn the man knew how to swear. However, judging by the way the Pirate King pointed at her and let out a few more swears, she took a shot in the dark to assume that he didn't expect a woman to arrive on his island.

Her wrists strained on the handcuffs, wondering why the fuck was Hoyt pulling this sort of shit. After a few more minutes Volker turned back, Hector let go of her and headed back to the helicopter. The helicopters engine turning on and flooding the beach with noise. Hoyt stopped at where she stood, his blue eyes looking her up and down. "You know what to do." He said and licked his lips. "Don't fuck up." Then he walked off.

"Volker!" She shouted at the man. "You gonna take the handcuffs off or what?"

Hoyt merely turned his torso, smirked at her and waved her goodbye before climbing into the helicopter. She sighed and turned around, with the intention of walking toward the two men, but instead she smacked into a hard, puffed out chest. After a second of wavering on her feet, she caught her footing. Her eyes turned upward and were met with crazed ones. His eyes caught her off guard, not because of the way he was glaring at her, she had gotten that look too many times to be fazed by it, but because of their odd colour. A mix of hazel and light green, with a few golden flecks. They were... pretty.

"Hello." She said and took a step back, putting some space between the two.

"You are Vincent?" Vaas spoke, his voice was smooth with a Spanish accent. She didn't know what she was expecting, but it wasn't_ that_.

"_Scarlett_ Vincent." She said, emphasising her first name. "Vaas Montenegro, I presume?"

Vaas was tallish, 5'10 or 5'11. He was of athletic build, muscular with strong shoulders. Across his torso, over his shirt, were two belt looking things. Black leather combat boots were laced onto his feet. His hands, bearing bandages, wraps and a couple of pieces of jewellery, were cut and dirty. Around his neck was more jewellery; a red string like necklace, a black beaded one and a green rock, which looked like it had been snapped or broken somehow, on a black piece of string. He had a red piece of fabric tied around his left bicep and Scarlett briefly wondered that if he flexed enough would it snap off. His scar, looked even rougher up close. It wasn't clean-cut, hinting at the fact that it was personal. The jagged scar, which ran from his eyebrow to the back of his head, was thicker at the eyebrow and grew thinner the further back you went.

During the time that Scarlett took him in, he was apparently taking her in too. His eyes lingered at her breasts for a moment too long for her comfort. "I was not aware you are, in fucking fact, a woman." The corner of his mouth curled up a little, as if he found the fact amusing.

"Sorry to disappoint." She lifted her, still handcuffed, wrists. "Any chance of Volker giving you the key?"

Vaas laughed, shaking his head and then turned around. "C'mon hermano." He started walking toward the vehicle. "Hermano. Hmm... Hermana?" He eyed her over his shoulder, as if guessing that Scarlett had an opinion on the matter. "I'm going to have to work on that."

When they reach the car, she finally got a good look at the other man. He was taller than Vaas with about the same amount of muscle. He had a beard covering his jaw and a thick mop of dark brown hair on his head. His eyes, matching the hair, were a dark brown. His skin was a medium olive tone, though still a bit darker than Vaas'. He was, handsome to say the least. Then he smiled, which made him about ten times more attractive, because it was one of those big and honest smiles.

It almost made her forget that he was a pirate and most likely Vaas' right hand man. Almost.

"Well hello, miss Vincent." The man said, in thick accented English. He was from somewhere in the Mediterranean perhaps. "I am Carlos."

"Scarlett," She offered a smile back at him.

He opened the car door from the side and motioned for her to climb in. "Get in, Scarlett."

"You don't happen to have anything to cut these fuckers off, eh?" She asked while she was seated in the back. Vaas took the wheel and Carlos climbed into the passenger seat, pulling his assault rifle into his lap.

Carlos shook his head. "Sorry."

Scarlett let out a breath and leaned back. Slightly tugging on the handcuffs, examining them. They were in perfect condition, so her own strength wasn't going to be enough to break them, and they were also on rather tight. She wondered if she got her hands on some oil would she be able to slip her hand out. She didn't happen to have a bobby-pin on hand either. Scarlett was snapped out of her thoughts by Carlos' voice. "What are you here for anyway?"

"How much did Volker tell you?" She questioned, turning her gaze to Vaas, at the same taking note of his strong jaw.

Vaas' eyes were on the road, his right hand on the wheel while his left hung lazily out of the window and down the side of the car. "Your fucking accent, where are you from? Europe?"

Scarlett nodded. "Yes, Europe." She was intent on not giving away anything that wasn't necessary for either of them to know. She said nothing more, looking expectantly at Vaas and waiting for him to answer her initial question.

The scarred man eyed her through the rear view mirror. "He told me you were an assassin." He clicked his tongue. "He said you killed a man, you need a fucking place to hide."

"Oh so you're a killer?" Carlos' eyebrows lifted up. "You don't look like a killer."

Scarlett smirked slightly. "Don't believe everything you see, eh?" She wanted a pair of sunglasses, a bottle of whisky and those fucking handcuffs off of her. "Yes. I killed a man, a very important man. However if I needed a place to hide I wouldn't be here. I need to disappear completely. For a while anyway." The story was half true, she _had_ killed a man. A politician who had influence all over the world, but she didn't need to disappear or even hide. Nobody knew it was her who committed the murder.

Carlos had his torso turned toward the woman sitting in the back seat. "Still not getting the whole killer vibe from you, though." His dark eyes roamed over her face.

The ride was long and no one spoke too much. Vaas and Carlos exchanged a few words in Spanish every now and again. It was fine my Scarlett, she wasn't in much of a talking mood anyway. By the time they got to the docks, her wrists were red, not to mention aching, and her ass was sore. When she looked out the window, she saw a half a dozen pirates loading up a boat with wooden crates. Scarlett was thankful when they got out of the car, as she got to stretch her legs, though she wasn't exactly prepared to the reaction she got.

As if by a magnet, everyone single one of the pirates' eyes were glued to her the moment she got out.

"Hello pretty lady." A man her height with a red bandanna wrapped around his dreadlocks asked her with a chuckle, a wicked smile on his lips. He spoke in a deep, French accented voice. He was now standing next to her and he reached his hand up to stroke her cheek, but she slapped his hand away before it could touch her.

"You sure you wanna do that?" Scarlett asked. She had been warned that these pirates were savages and used to raping every woman in sight, but damn she seriously wasn't expecting anything like this, this fast.

The man chuckled. "Where'd you find this one Vaas? I like her." He tilted his head to the side and licked his lips. "I bet she's a screamer."

"You will not fucking touch her!" Vaas said loudly while walking around the car, drawing all of the eyes to him. "None of you _fucks_ will touch her, alright?" He shouted and looked at every single man. The man with the bandanna winked at Scarlett and then wandered off. "You touch her, you fucking die." He whistled loudly and started to walk toward the boat. "Where the fuck is the old fucker?"

Carlos leaned against the car and lit up a cigarette, Scarlett turned to him. "Mind if I bum one?" Carlos eyed her for a moment and then whipped out the pack. Then he pulled out the lighter and lit it for her. Scarlett leaned onto the car next to him and took a drag of her cigarette, smiling slightly as nicotine once again flowed in her bloodstream.

"Is he always like that?" Scarlett asked motioning to the Pirate King, who was shouting and swearing again. Her wrists were screaming for her to stop moving, but she tried to pay no mind to it.

Carlos smiled. "Stick around and find out."

A truck, practically identical to the one she was leaning against except that it had a roof, pulled into the docks. A man was driving the truck, through Scarlett couldn't see what the driver looked like because of the sun reflecting on the windscreen.

She took another drag from the cigarette and leaned her head back. She slowly blew out the smoke and closed her eyes. It was so fucking hot out. The sound of the car door opening reached her. Then she heard a voice that made her blood run cold, despite the heat, and her heart stop. "Vaas! I got the fucking crates!" The man shouted. Scarlett quickly opened her eyes and whipped her head toward the newly arrived vehicle.

The voice was thick, deep and raspy from years of smoking cigars. The English man who owned the voice was close to 60 years of age, 6'5 tall and muscular as a bear. His head was covered by a mop of blond and grey hair. His name was Gareth Kidd... and he was dead.

Scarlett followed the man with her eyes in shock. Her mind throwing a bunch of questions at her. The most prominent being "_how_". Scarlett watched as the man interacted with Vaas. She couldn't tell if she was dreaming, if she was breathing, hell she felt like she was suddenly submerged in water. She felt a tightening in her chest and her stomach wanted to turn itself inside out. She wanted to ask Carlos who the man was, but her when she opened her mouth no sound came out.

Scarlett saw as Vaas sent two pirates to fetch the crates from the vehicle and then lazily motioned to her with his hand. The old man turned to glance at her, then turned back toward the Pirate King. A second later his posture noticeable stiffened and he turned back toward Scarlett again. Before she realized her feet were taking her toward Kidd and Vaas, anger boiling in her blood.

"Scar?" The old man asked, his raspy voice coaxed in disbelief and eyes wide, as soon as she was earshot.

"You motherfucker!" She said, her voice rising almost to the level of shouting by the end. She pushed him, with both of her handcuffed hands and put all of the weight in her torso into it. She was disappointed and even more angry, when she saw that the man only stumbled back a half a step. "You _lying_ mother_fucking_ piece of _shit_!" She hit Gareth's chest as hard as she could. She could feel the tears starting to well up in her eyes but she bit the inside of her cheek to stop them.

Gareth wrapped his hands around her wrists, holding her in one place. His eyes were still wide with absolute disbelief. "Scarlett." He murmured, his eyes roaming over her face. Scarlett tried to yank her hands free from his, on the second tug he let go. "Scar. What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I take it that you two know each other." Vaas exclaimed with a chuckle, clearly amused, neither of the two paid attention to him.

"What the fuck am I doing here?" She shouted, clearly still pissed off. "How the _hell_ are you alive?" As soon as she spoke the words and it hit her. Gareth was alive and had let her think that he wasn't. He had lied to her. He had betrayed her. She felt like she had been stabbed. For five fucking years she had thought him dead, but no. Here he was, alive and well. Soaking up the sunshine.

For the first time since he layed eyes on her, his eyes moved away from Scarletts face and noticed the handcuffs on her wrists. "Vaas. You can't sell her." The old man turned to the younger one. "You have to let her go."

Vaas bubbled up a laugh and Scarlett, with a little displeasure, noticed that he had a very nice smile. The Pirate King motioned toward the jungle with his hand. "The mujer is free to leave."

Gareth grabbed her bicep with his massive hand, saying "C'mon Scar, I'll get you out." while still keeping his eyes warily on Vaas, wondering if the scarred man was serious about letting her leave. What he didn't expect was for Scarlett to, once again, yank herself free.

"Don't you fucking dare." She said and took a step back from him.

"¡Orale!" Carlos shouted, "We have to get going before nightfall!"

Scarlett quickly glanced toward the general direction of the sun, noticing that it had dipped down a noticeable amount. Two men lifted the last crate onto the boat and Vaas motioned to the boat. "Right this way," Offering her another smile.

She turned to walk to the boat, but yet again Gareth grabbed her arm. "Seriously, the whole arm grabbing thing is getting old real fucking fast." To say that she was still extremely crossed with the man, would have been an understatement.

"Look," Gareth sighed, "Scar. You don't know these men, they will tear you to pieces as soon as they fucking can. Let me take you away while I still can." Scarlett shook her head in disbelief. "I am your-"

"You are my _what_?" She lashed out, her hands balling up into fists. "Huh? You have no fucking right to pull any of that shit right now. You are supposed to be _dead_. You let me believe for five fucking years that you were _dead_."

"I hate to break up the fucking reunion, hermanos." Vaas' patience was growing thin. "But do you think you two can continue on the fucking boat. Huh?" He wasn't exactly shouting but he wasn't far from it. Gareth loosened his hold on the woman, and walked with her onto the boat. She took the opportunity to yank her arm free, she wasn't kidding when she said that it was getting old.

"So if you're not captured, why are you wearing handcuffs?" Gareth questioned, and the boat's engine rumbled to life.

"Aah," She lifted her hands up and tugged on them, as if emphasising that indeed the handcuffs were there. "This is a little present from Volker."

"Volker?" The man raised his eyebrows. "As in Hoyt Volker?" Scarlett gave a curt nod and the old man groaned. "_You're_ doing business with Hoyt. What business do you even have to do with him?"

"You sound disappointed," she noted as her eyes found Vaas, who was standing at the very front of the boat not far from her. His face was not angry, but a certain sharpness was still present there. He wasn't relaxed, his eyes roaming from the sea to the shore that just came into sight.

"I am." Gareth said and he sounded tired.

Scarlett's eyes travelled from Vaas' face to his shoulders and downward. She noted, perhaps with a little resentment, that he had a very nice ass. She thought back to what she had heard of the man, a ruthless and unpredictable killer. It didn't once cross her mind that he might be even remotely physically attractive. As Scarlett kept staring his ass, she muttered out "You have no right to be," to Gareth. As if on queue, the pirate at the nose of the boat turned around and his eyes landed on her.

She had been caught red handed staring at a Pirate Kings ass.

_Wonderful start._ Her inner voice retorted and Scarlett imaged that if her inner voice had hands, it would be clapping slowly. A mocking clap, sarcastic even. Scarlett's eyes lifted to the scarred man and he rose a curious eyebrow, his eyes holding a glint of mischief. The pirate turned around and sauntered toward them.

"If you're working for Hoyt, what the hell are you doing _here_?" Gareth questioned.

She wished that she could have ran a hand through her brown hair, a habit that she had had ever since she was little. "Disappearing. I killed a man."

Gareth laughed. "That's funny." Scarlett raised an eyebrow at him. "Now tell me why you're really here."

Scarlett ignored the old man and instead turned to the Pirate King who was now next to her, on the opposite side from Gareth. "Montenegro, do you seriously have absolutely nothing on this boat to cut these fuckers off?" She waved her wrists in the air for a moment.

"My name is Vaas." He took a drag from the cigarette that was dangling from between his fingers and Scarlett wondered if she was to actually call him Vaas instead of Montenegro would he end up snapping at her. "And all I know is that they're probably on there for a reason. So no." With a smirk in her direction.

The frustration was slowly building up in her. Scarlett felt overwhelmed as she looked back at the North Island, with a man who was supposed to be dead next to her and a Pirate King on her other. The sun was setting and the orange light touched the jungle, blowing it up in a warm glow. The air felt lighter, not as humid as before. Clear blue water licked the long sandy beach, it looked beautiful.

Truly beautiful. It looked like paradise.

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><p><strong>So that was all for this time.<strong>

**What do you think?**

**If this gets a good reaction from all of you people, I'll post more.**

**Reviews are better than Vaas' ass... Actually no, they're not but we'll just have to make do.**

**Adiós amigos.**

**-Max**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything in my stories except for the ****_fan_**** fiction (including plots, OC's and so on). All the characters belong to the rightful owners. Any songs/poems/etc in my stories do ****_not_**** belong to me unless stated otherwise.**

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><p><strong>AN: Hello again amigos.**

**I realized today that it had been two weeks since I posted the first chapter. So I apologize for this one coming onto the interwebs so late. This also means that you are in no mood for my fuckery, so I'll let you get on with it.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

"_**Everything is funny, if you can laugh at it."**_

_In and out. In and out. Scarlett focused on her breath as she ran. The jungle, green and lush, sped by her as she pushed her legs to move faster. Her muscles ached, her lungs were burning and it felt like her veins were pumping acid._

_Run. Run._

_Bawa._

_She couldn't stop. She knew she couldn't stop. If she stopped... No. She couldn't even think of what would happen if she stopped. A sense of doom hung over her as tears stung the back of her eyes. She couldn't run much longer. She knew that._

_Run. Run._

_Saya._

_She had to be smart. Be smart._

_Run. Run._

_Ke._

_How can you be smart in a situation like this?_

_Keep running, Scarlett._

_Run._

_Jantung._

_Her vision was blurred with tears and the green that was passing her by, she didn't even notice a tree that was horizontally on the ground. She stumbled and fell flat on her stomach._

_Anda._

_Words were said, but not by her. At least she didn't think it was her. Even if it was her, she couldn't understand them. She wasn't even sure she heard them, she just knew they were said._

_She felt a tug. And then she was drowning. Water as far to the sides as she could see and deep down below her, turning into a menacing black void. She didn't dare take a breath in._

_Her muscles locked up and she couldn't move. The only this she could do was scream, but even that was muffled by the water._

Scarlett sighed. It was that moment of blissful emptiness that you get when you first wake up, everything was blank for a good couple of seconds. Blank from the dream before and the day before. However all too soon she was overcome with a wave of annoyance as sunlight shined right into her eye from the small window in the room. Scarlett groaned and rolled to her other side, a spring from the bed digging into the skin over her ribs uncomfortably. She stretched, several of her joints cracked, and the handcuffs, still present on her wrists, felt cold and painful. As she opened her eyes she saw a figure not far from her. Scarlett quickly pulled out the knife from under her pillow and pointed it at the person.

The knife was given to her the night before by Gareth, as a mean of protection.

"Whoa, whoa," Vaas put his hands up to show he wasn't going to hurt her. "Did I startle you?" He laughed.

"What the fuck?" Scarlett groaned, lowering the knife but still keeping it in her hand. She was still slightly disoriented from sleep and couldn't think of a logical reason why the Pirate King would be in her room.

"Good morning, amigo." Vaas' voice bounced off the walls and he was clearly amused by her reaction. "Would you like a fucking tour of my little camp?" Vaas smiled and casually leaned against the wall with his shoulder. If it was any other time, Scarlett would have pushed the thought out of her mind, because she didn't want to admit that the smile was in fact, beautiful.

Scarlett sat up on the bed and rolled her head, so that her neck cracked from all of the angles. "I- Yeah, alright."

"Magnífico!"

"I need to change first."

Vaas' lips twitched, "As you wish." When Vaas didn't move, Scarlett crossed her arms to the best of her abilities.

"In _private_." She stated, narrowing her eyes at him slightly, and the man slowly left the room, a smirk on his lips.

She huffed out a breath and sat down on the edge of the bed. Her handcuffed hands rose and she rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. She looked around the small room that was given to her, it was a small rectangular box. The room had old wooden walls, wooden floor and a small double bed. With a sigh, she stood and started removing her shirt, only to remember that she had no luggage. Everything that she did bring with her, Hoyt had failed to deliver to the island. Hell, even if she did, she couldn't change her shirt without ripping it because of the handcuffs. Frustrated, she straightened her shirt back down and tucked the knife into her boot. Scarlett excited the room, Vaas was leaning against the wall next to the door.

He gave her a once over and lifted an eyebrow in confusion. "Your clothes are the same." Scar ignored the man and proceeded to walk out of the building. The building had three bedrooms and an empty hallway. Scarlett was merely glad that she didn't have to sleep in the building with the rest of the men. According to Gareth, there was one room with ten beds, which meant more men than beds.

As soon as they were out of the main door of the building, Vaas slung his arm around her shoulders. She was going to shrug it off, but his hand was dangerously close to her neck and very much _present_, that she opted that it would only piss him off. Vaas was not the kind of person who you wanted to piss off. She had learned that yesterday, when she had made a comment about something completely insignificant, she couldn't even remember what. She did remember his reaction though. Vaas had slammed her against the wall, hand at her throat and his teeth bared right in her face, like a wild animal. Then a second later he was laughing, while still strangling her. Scarlett was sure she had bruises on her neck from that.

"So, hermana, this is my fucking camp." He motioned around them lazily with his left hand.

Vaas showed her around the camp, telling her where most of the things were. She was glad to hear that there was internet access in a building across the camp from her quarters. Last night, when they had gotten to the camp, it was dark and she was tired and in pain. Meaning that she took in less than she should have. Now, in daylight, the camp was bigger than she expected, lots of buildings and many cages of screaming and crying hostages on one side of it.

Vaas was exactly what she expected, yet he was nothing like she expected. He treated her well enough, knowing she was under Hoyt's protection, though he did put a blade to her throat a couple of times. Scarlett quickly learned to respond to his questions as fast as possible and try not to piss him off too much. She did admit that his reactions amused her slightly, but she didn't exactly have a death wish.

"You fucking hungry?" Vaas questioned, as if on cue her stomach growled loudly and Vaas laughed. The last time had ate was when she was on the plane to the Rook Islands. Close to thirty hours ago, if not more. "I shall take that as a yes." He led her into a mix between a shack and a deck. Or a shack with a deck whilst being on said deck. On the deck itself there were many tables and chairs surrounding them. Tied to the poles, that held the beams upright and supported the rickety pieces of metal which were disguised as a roof, were two hostages.

One was a young woman, who couldn't have been more than maybe eighteen years old. She had light blonde hair that was once perhaps up in a bun, now half of it was down and sticking to her dirty skin. Her eyes were closed and she had a sweet face, even with the dirt and dried tear marks on her cheeks. The other was a boy just entering manhood, perhaps the same age as the girl next to him. He was lanky, with arms and legs too long for his torso. Scarlett eyed them carefully, wondering why in hell where they in what seemed to be the kitchen slash cafeteria for the men. The thought of the pirates being cannibals quickly flashed through her mind and she felt her stomach twist. Scarlett and Vaas sat down at a table and it wasn't long until two plates of food were in front of them. The meal was mostly fruit and Scarlett wasn't complaining.

A kiss landed on top of Scarlett's head. "Good morning, kid."

"Hey, Gareth." She responded as the man sat down next to her. She was still crossed with the old man, but she warmth in her stomach over the affectionate, yet some-what insignificant, act gave away how much she had really missed Gareth.

"Sleep well?" He questioned and stole a piece of mango off her plate, popping it into his mouth with a grin.

Scarlett merely shook her head. "Well enough, I suppose." Gareth took a seat next to her and she continued to speak. "Can I ask, why the hell are there two people bound up here like pigs?"

Gareth chuckled and nudged arm with his elbow. "Dinner."

Scarlett stared at him for a moment. "You have got to be fucking kidding me." she said, Gareth's grin widened.

"They are there because they _are_ pigs," Vaas said in a-matter-of-fact voice and stood up, walking over to the blonde girl. Her eyes opened, revealing clear and bright blue eyes, at the sound of footsteps approaching. "They tried to run." Vaas pulled a gun from the holster on his hip and stroked the girls cheek with the shiny barrel. The girls eyes pooled with tears and they were soon running down her cheeks, she bit her lip to keep silent.

Scarlett swallowed and her stomach felt hollow, regretting ever bringing up the two hostages.

"They know, there is no fucking way out." Vaas was mere centimetres away from her face. "They know, that there is no _fucking_ escape." The girl squeezed her eyes shut and let out a sob. "Shh shh," He shushed, wiping her tears away with his thumb. "It's going to be okay, shh. Don't cry." It was terrifying how sincere he sounded, then again for all Scarlett knew he could have been.

When the girl didn't stop crying, Vaas grabbed her chin and pulled her toward himself a little. "What did I just tell you, mujer? Huh?" She bit her lip again, muffling her sobs. "What? The? Fuck? Did? I? Tell? You?" He shouted, pronouncing each word separately for emphasis.

The blonde girls lip trembled as she spoke. "S-s-stop crying." She managed to stutter out in a broken voice. Scarlett wanted to go and defend her, to cut let loose and send her far away from this godforsaken place. She knew however, that it would do more harm than good. There was no way out by yourself. Also, if she helped the blonde girl, she herself would most likely be taken hostage. Scarlett was sure that Vaas, at that point, wouldn't care that she was under Hoyt's protection.

"Yes!" Vaas threw his arms up with a smile. "I told you, to stop the fucking crying!" Vaas shouted at her, his voice was strong and commanding. All of the men around them didn't pay attention to the screaming, but you could tell that they tensed up. All of their movement became that much more calculated and careful as a reaction to the strength of Vaas' voice.

The girl let out another sob and Vaas sighed in disappointment. "Amigo. Pay attention now. Okay?" He sounded like was about to explain something to a three year old. "If. _You_ do _not_ stop crying. I will be _forced_ to give _you_ to Smiley." He raised an eyebrow at her.

Vaas motioned to the man with the dreadlocks and red bandanna, who had commented about her the previous day. He was three tables over from Scarlett and Old Man, slightly swaying while sitting. Smiley waved his fingers at the girl, smirked and kissed the air in her direction, letting out a sickeningly wet and loud 'mwah' sound.

"And trust me," Vaas nodded. "You don't want to... How do you say? Get acquainted, yes. You do _not_ want to get acquainted, if you know what I mean, with Smiley. No, no, no, no, no you do not." Vaas laughed.

"Leave her alone!" A voice sounded, it took a moment for Vaas to realize that the voice came out of the boy who was also tied up.

"What the fuck did you say?" Vaas asked. He walked over to the boy and stared him down. "What the _fuck_ did you just say, hermano? Cause, uh. I couldn't hear you." He motioned to his ear with his gun. "I'm asking you to repeat yourself, amigo."

"I said." The boy paused. "Leave her alone!" Then the boy spat on Vaas' chest. Scarlett admitted that the boy had guts, but sadly no brains.

Vaas chuckled, looking genuinely amused. "Alone huh? You want _me_," Vaas motioned to his chest with his gun. "To leave _her _alone?" Vaas motioned to the girl.

The boy nodded and Vaas cocked his head to the side. "Alone. Alone means having no one else present. On one's own. Solo. Solitary. Lone. Huh?" He grabbed the back of the boy's head by his hair and Scarlett winced at the sight. The boys eyebrows pulled together in pain, but he kept his jaw set. The boy was still staring down Vaas. "Without others' help or participation. Single-handed. Unaided. Unassisted." He chuckled again and pressed the barrel of the gun under the boys jaw, pointing up at his head. "Alone. Huh? Isolated and lonely. Deserted. Abandoned. This is what you want, huh?" He laughed again, a hysterical laugh. "You kids, you kids these days! You have a really fucked up concept of love, you know?"

Vaas was terrifying, there was no question in that. However Scarlett was still surprised that Vaas managed to give the boy a dictionary definition of the word 'alone'.

Another laugh from Vaas. "Hey, Old Man!" He called out and let go of the boy, pulling his gun back at the same. "Did you hear this boy? Eh? He wanted for me to leave his mujer over there _alone_. Can you believe that?"

Gareth grumbled something in response which even Scarlett, right next to him, couldn't understand. Vaas however seemed to take no mind.

"You wanted me to leave her alone, and you know. I like to please people." He did a little dance and smiled at the boy. Scarlett's eyes stared at his ass for a moment.

_That is one fine ass._ The little voice in head noted. Scarlett felt sickened by herself that in a situation like this _that_ was a thing she paid attention to. Vaas pulled the barrel of the gun back and pressed it to his temple.

"VAAS! VAAS!" A man, with an AK-47 in his hand ran toward the deck. "Cepat!" He said and then went on a rant in a language Scarlett didn't understand. She guessed it to be perhaps the native language of the island.

When Vaas responded in the same language, his voice seemed a lot deeper compared to when he spoke English. Vaas pulled the gun away from the boy and tucked it back into the holster. He then shouted out in Spanish, most of the men dropped whatever they were doing and started grabbing their guns. Gareth got up as well and Scarlett followed suit.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" Gareth questioned.

Scarlett raised her eyebrows. "I'm coming with you." She said as if it was obvious and to her it was.

"No." Gareth said. "It's too dangerous, plus you don't even know where we're headed."

Scarlett felt like she was ten years old again. "I am _not_ staying here."

Gareth's eyes flickered to Smiley still sitting at the table. His legs were popped up and he was chewing on a banana. Gareth sighed and nodded, "Fine. But first, I have to go get my walkie-talkie. Coming?"

They walked toward the building that earlier Vaas has pointed out as the building with internet. As they neared it, you could hear loud dubstep blaring out of it. The building was like the rest, on the verge of breaking down. It was rather small and when they entered Scarlett saw there were two rooms. The bigger one that was right there when you walked in, was filled with computers, a big stereo and both steel and wooden crates. The other room was small and only separated by a half wall, so tecnically the whole inside could be considered only as one room. The smaller bit was filled with a bed and clothes that were sprawled on the ground.

At the desk, staring into four different computer screens was a tall and skinny young man with dishevelled blonde hair that reached past his ears. It struck Scarlett as odd, because everyone else was big and muscular and this guy was just scrawny.

Gareth turned the music down to only background noise and the blond turned around in the chair. He had a tall and bony face with high cheekbones and an angular jaw. He had full lips, bright blue eyes and a big straight nose with a piercing in it. His was very pale and clad in red t-shirt that had a black spray painted Marvel S.H.I.E.L.D logo on it and a pair of tight black jeans.

"Scar, this is Kip." Gareth said and Kip offered her a smile. Scarlett gave a hesitant wave back. Gareth went to the side of the room to dig though a box, "Scar could you look through the other one," he said, referring to the wooden box that was right next to him.

Scar leaned down to open the crate and noticed that the crate was in front of a radiator. She stared at the radiator in bewilderment, thinking why on earth anyone on a tropical fucking island would have a radiator installed. Gareth took advantage of the moment when Scarlett zoned out. With another pair of handcuffs he locked Scarlett to the radiator.

"Wai-What? _Whoa_!" Scarlett shouted. "No. _No!_ Gareth you are not fucking doing this! Seriously!"

Gareth stood up and got out of her kicking reach. "Sorry, kiddo. I can't have you come with us. You shouldn't see shit like that, plus I know you'd figure out a way to come after us. To top that off, I ain't leaving you with Smiley."

Scarlett was boiling with rage. "You motherfucker! And you do not get to decide what I see and what I don't. You gave up that right a _long_ time ago."

"Sorry." Gareth said, actually looking honest. "Have fun with Kip." With that he walked out, leaving behind an amused Kip and an angry Scarlett.

"That motherfucker!" Scarlett said to herself in absolute disbelief. "What a fucking dickhead." She sighed and leaned against the radiator, her arms awkwardly draped over her shoulder. "Please tell me that you're going to unlock me."

Kip gave her an apologetic smile.

"Damn." She sighed. "Why the hell do you even have a radiator, seriously. It's always hot as fuck."

Kip scratched the back of his head, messing his hair up even more. "I honestly have no clue." He was a londoner, judging by his voice. "Maybe Vaas is terrified of global warming and likes to be prepared in case of an ice age?"

Scarlett giggled, her anger starting to slowly fade. "That's one possibility." For some reason the thought of Vaas wearing a big winter jacket was extremely comical.

Kip stared at Scarlett for a moment. She evaluated him to be about her age, maybe a bit younger even. "You're Vincent, right? Scarlett Vincent, but Vincent nonetheless."

Scarlett nodded, wondering why it mattered. Kip got out of his chair and started moving around small crates. When he found the one that he was looking for, he bought it to her. "This came this morning." The box was a wooden and it had her surname spray painted on it.

"What's in it?"

Kip shrugged.

"Will you open it for me? Cause, uh," she jiggled her hands so the handcuffs made noise, "I'm a bit tied up."

Kip snorted at her bad pun, but retrieved a metal bar from the table and opened the lid of the box. It held all of her personal belongings that she brought to the island. This meant that she had clothes and her laptop, including other necessities. "I thought those were lost for forever!" At least there was one good thing that happened today.

Anger surfaced again. _Fucking Kidd,_ she thought. Scarlett looked at the things she could reach, nothing was of use to pick the lock of the handcuffs. With a sigh she tried to see if there was anyway that she could yank her hands free, but quickly came to the decision that without breaking her hands there wasn't.

For an hour she sat there on the box filled with wires and the like. Kip had, thankfully, brought her two pillows, one to sit on and the other to lean on. It didn't help much, but it was still better than the metal digging into her back. During the time she was there, Kip chatted. Scarlett also noticed that Kip was never still, he was always moving, tinkering, pacing, tapping. Then she found out that he had ADHD and was practically a genius when it came to technology. She learned that he also played the guitar.

"What's your story? How did you end up here anyway?" Scar wondered.

He shrugged and proceeded to screw something apart. "I uh, I'm an orphan. Originally anyway. My parents gave me away right after I was born. I was adopted when I was four. Lived in London, then I lived in Bangkok and then London again. When I was thirteen I dropped out of school. Well no." He leaned back in his chair for a moment. Then stood up and started rummaging through crates, all the while talking. "I didn't drop out per se, I ran away. So I doubt I'm still enrolled. Anyway."

"Why?" She interrupted.

"Why did I run away?" He questioned and Scarlett nodded. "Because my foster parents didn't let me drop out of school, they were both university professors, and school just didn't _work_ for me. You... You wouldn't understand. Nobody ever _really_ does."

"Explain it, please." Scarlett was honestly curious. Kip seemed, so innocent and too normal to be living here. "I want to understand but I can't do so if you don't explain. Help me understand."

Kip stared at her for a moment, his brows furrowed a bit. "I just can't connect with people. I don't know why, but I can't. People always expect you to be like them, but I'm never like anyone. At least I wasn't back in London, nor in Bangkok really. I can't work with people and I can't learn the same way that others do. School was hell, because we had to sit in lessons and read. And when everyone else can do it fine and you can't, you become a freak. You're a problem."

Kip quickly glanced at Scarlett to see if she was still listening and she nodded for him to go on. "It frustrates me and when I'm frustrated I get irritated and angry. The thing is though, that I can't control it. And that's just shit."

Scarlett found it odd how Kip was able to open up so fast to a person he didn't even know. She herself could never do that, it took her years to open up to people."I'm sorry," Scarlett said, knowing full well that there was nothing she should be sorry about and that her being sorry wouldn't change anything. However, she felt like she still had to say it.

Kip shook his head with a smile. "That's okay. Really." His smile widened and Scarlett found herself smiling as well. "Thank you though. No one had ever-" He cut himself off. "Anyway. After I ran away. I lived homeless for two years, going and coming as I pleased. Only after food and shelter really."

"You were _thirteen_?"

Kip nodded, "I made friends with a couple of other guys, they were all older than me obviously. When I turned fifteen, me and another two, had gathered enough money to go somewhere. Far far away. I of course suggested Bangkok. I mean, I remembered the city pretty well so why not." When Kip spoke he was very animated, he spoke as much with his face and arms as he did with his voice. "Getting there is a story in itself. Anyway. When we had spent a couple of weeks in Bangkok, this DJ said that he knew this island where you could do anything. Like whatever extreme sport you wanted and like the _craziest_ things. So he knew of my skill with everything electronic and he said they need a guy like me on the island."

Kip started sorting through the contents of three boxes. "You know, take care of well... Everything that needed to be taken care of. Technology wise. I didn't exactly know what the hell I was getting into." He laughed and forgot the boxes, going back to the desk. "It's not that bad really. After the initial shock it's actually been alright. Better than anywhere else really. I get to be as fucked up as I want and no one cares." He seemed genuinely happy about it.

Scarlett smiled at the boy. "Holy crap. I was definitely not expecting that. So that's what you do? Computer stuff?"

Kip nodded and lit up a cigarette, offering one to Scarlett. To which she nodded, he put the cigarette between her lips and lit it. "Yeah. Pretty much. I rewire alarms and stuff too. There's what, nineteen other outposts like this one, a bit smaller, on the actual North Island."

"What do you mean nineteen?" Scarlett was confused.

"Like." Kip squinted at her. "Where most of the pirates actually live. There's maybe a dozen of us here, this is mainly the place where we hold the hostages. There is a good couple of hundred pirates all together... Don't tell me you thought it was just us?" He laughed, not waiting for Scar's response to continue. "This is the safest place to be. No Rakyat is going to attack here. This island is a fortress in itself. The outposts on the main island are the ones which usually get attacked, so those have alarms and shit to let others know that they're being attacked. Eight out of ten times the alarms get blown out, so I fix them."

Scarlett was confused. "Who are the Rakyat?" She took a drag of her cigarette, even though the extra movement was only adding to her discomfort and pain.

"You really know nothing about this place huh?" Kip wondered and she shook her head. "I don't know if I should tell you."

"No one else has told me so you might as well."

"Who are you?" Kip asked, not in a hostile way.

"I'm... I'm Scar. I'm here because I need to disappear." Her arms were going numb. "You could imagine my surprise when I ran into Gareth. Especially because I thought he was dead."

Kip sat next to her. "You know Kidd?"

Scarlett nodded. "Yeah." She smiled slightly. "The man raised me. He used to be best friends with my dad." She cleared her throat. "So how long have you been here?"

"Five years," he smiled.

"You're... Twenty?"

Kip nodded. "Your dad. It's a tough subject." He wasn't asking, it was a statement, which meant he was more observant than he let on.

"It's a killer." Scar laughed a dry laugh, then averted her eyes. Turning her gaze to her knees, she shook her head. She decided not to push the Rakyat question for now.

"Your neck," Kip motioned with his finger, which confirmed that she did indeed have bruises there. "What happened?"

Scarlett let out a dry chuckle. "Vaas."

Kip smiled and nodded, seemingly understanding. "Yeah, I've been there."

Hours passed. At some point Kip ran out to get the two of them food. It felt weird for Scarlett to have someone feed her, but she was hungry and tied up, so there wasn't much of a choice. Hours kept passing. The two bonded over muffins from a café in London's Soho, their love for Enrique Iglesias and many other things. The topic of Enrique was bought up when the stereo started playing one of his songs. Scarlett noticed that she hadn't felt this carefree in a long time, despite being handcuffed to a completely illogically placed radiator.

Kip was a truly nice person, she realized. Then she started wondering if he had ever killed anyone, because she couldn't imagine it.

It was starting to get dark outside. "Where did they go? Gareth, Vaas and the rest of them." Scarlett asked, she could barely feel her arms anymore. She had been standing up for a while, trying to move them just to get the blood flowing but it hadn't helped much. Plus, remembering how she had to pee made her cringe.

By this time Kip was taping a large piece of metal to the ceiling. "From the time that they have been gone, I'm guessing there was an especially large yacht going by. Perhaps even a proper ship of some sort."

"So what, they just raid it?"

Kip shrugged. "Basically. I mean. First they take it over, then they have to get the people off of it. Then they have to clean out the ship from everything remotely valuable and useful, which can take a good couple of hours at least. Depending on the ship size, of course. After that a couple of hostages have probably tried to escape, some might have even managed. Which means Vaas getting pissed off, killing a couple people and then sending the men after the ones who ran away. This takes another couple of hours, cause the jungle is bloody confusing. _Then_," he stepped down from the chair to look at the duct-taped masterpiece on the ceiling.

Scarlett didn't dare to ask what it was. She guessed if she asked, Kip would answer something about aliens and anal probing, or something equally disturbing, which would completely tarnish the good image Kip has built up for himself.

"_Then_," Kip continued. "They've got to get everything back to here. Plus the boat they transport everything with is so fucking slow. Especially if they're on the other side of the island of something. It's a long process." He dragged out the 'o' in the word 'long'.

It was another hour until they heard the trucks drive back to the base. Another half an hour until the heavy footsteps, that belonged to Gareth were heard. During the half hour period, screaming and gunshots filled the air. Kip didn't seem at all bothered by them, so Scar tried not to be either. However, the hysterical and terrified screaming made it difficult to be indifferent. Especially when the sound made you want to cry and save them all.

The door opened and in walked a tired looking Gareth. "Hey kids. Have fun?" Kip smiled and Scarlett glared at the Old Man. "I'll take that as a yes." He unlocked Scar and her arms fell into her lap.

"Now if you'll take the other ones off as well." Scar mumbled.

Gareth offered her a hand and pulled her up. "Don't have the key, but I did find something that might help you. You coming to eat, Skipper?"

Kip jumped down from the table he was standing on, securing the piece of metal to the ceiling, and followed the two out of the house. As they were nearing the deck Scarlett observed that the deck was practically empty, she figured that most of the men had finished eating by now.

Vaas was standing at the foot of the steps that led onto the deck with another man with chin length salt and pepper hair. A dog was laying down between then. When they were walking up to them, Gareth whistled loudly. The dog pulled his head up and the two men gazed at the trio.

"Maccie, c'mere!" Gareth commanded, Scarlett saw that Vaas looked particularly happy.

The dog ran past Gareth, toward Scarlett. Scarlett held her ground, thinking it might attack. Instead Maccie started sniffing her feet and then started jumping on her. Scar smiled and crouched down, petting the dog. "Haya, Maccie. Was it Maccie?" The dog, as far as Scarlett could tell, was a Doberman and a rather adorable one at that. "You're so cute I just want to squish you."

Gareth whistled again. "Maccie. Get over here."

The dog let out a whine and walked over to Gareth. Gareth took a bobby-pin out of the dogs collar and handed it to Scarlett. "Got it off one of the hostages. You still remember how to pick these?"

"I could do it in my sleep, Old Man." She smiled.

They walked a couple more steps, so they reached Vaas and the other man. "You fucking piece of shit. You're a guard dog, you're supposed to fucking attack strangers! Not fucking lick their face. Not dry hump them. No. You're supposed to _attack_!" Vaas exclaimed loudly at the dog, while Maccie hung his head and whined. Nudging the toe of Vaas' shoe with his nose. "Ger'off!" With another whine Maccie climbed the steps onto the deck and layed down.

Scarlett noticed that the man next to Vaas was older, perhaps in his mid-forties. He had brown eyes and a beard, matching his salt and pepper hair. The most noticeable thing about his face however, much like Vaas', was his scar. The man bore a Glasgow Smile, which piqued curiosity inside of her. Scar smiled at the Pirate King. "You do realise that dogs can sense these things you know. Who's an enemy, who's not."

"Fuck you, mujer." The scarred man blew out smoke.

Scar bent open the bobby-pin. "Oh you wish." Vaas' eyes lit up and he smirked, taking another drag from the cigarette.

Scar bent the head of the bobby-pin into an 's' like shape and skilfully picked the locks in no time. She rubbed her red wrists, letting out a small moan and a gasp when it hurt more than she thought it would. She pocketed the bobby-pin and handed the handcuffs to Gareth.

Gareth was looking at her incredibly impressed. "Like I said, I could so it in my sleep."

As they were eating, Scar found out that the man who was standing with Vaas was named Montrose and he was Scottish. It seemed that no one really called him Montrose, they seemed to opt more for Monroe. Scar also found out that the dog was actually called Machiavelli.

"Machiavelli?" She wondered. "You named a dog after a renaissance philosopher. Why?"

Vaas shrugged. "Why the fuck not? There's also Plato, Nietzsche, Hume," he blew out a breath. "There's a couple more."

Then Gareth spoke up. "Oh, one of the men has something to ask you." He smiled with a glint in his eye. "You're going to _love_ this." He called out a name, which Scar didn't catch, and a pirate who was a couple of tables away made his way over.

He nodded to Vaas, but Vaas paid no attention to the newcomer since his eyes were fixed on Scarlett. The newcomer took a seat and pulled out a coin. "If I flip this coin," He addressed Scarlett with a strong accent. "What are my chances of getting head?"

Gareth mouth was in a thin line, eyes full of amusement. His face turning slightly red, clearly from holding in laughter, while Vaas just smirked and raised his eyebrows. Scarlett smiled and leaned toward him. "Oh, sadly there are no changes of that. However, with a little luck, you might be able to get a hand."

The man smiled wide and leaned toward her. "Really?"

"Oh _yeah_," Scarlett nodded and slapped the man hard across the face. "_Wow_, it looks like you don't even need to fucking flip it." Her wrist stung, but the slap felt too good to regret.

Gareth laughed loudly and banged his fist on the table. Vaas' eyebrows were high and his mouth was shaped like an 'o'. Kip joined into Gareth's laughter and Monroe looked impressed."I fucking told you she'd get you." Gareth managed to say and the man left. "Fucking idiot. I _told_ him!"

"She has got fire, this one." Vaas exclaimed and pointed a finger at her. "I like it."

"I do my best." Scarlett said confidently.

Soon enough, they were all done eating. A couple of cigarettes later, Scarlett announced that she's heading to sleep. Gareth helped her carry the box with her belongings to her room.

"Listen, I really am sorry that I cuffed you to the radiator." Gareth said as he set the box down. "I just, I have to keep you out of harms way. Plus, I knew Kip wouldn't do anything. I trust him, he's a good guy anyway."

Scarlett said down on the bed with a sigh. "You _do_ realize that I'm not a child anymore? After you died, I _had_ to grow up. I had no one, other than Shaun, and at the time I didn't know where he was either." She ran her hands through her hair, she noted that they were disgustingly greasy. "Why did you do it?"

Gareth shook his head. "Not tonight." He rubbed his eyes. "Goodnight, kiddo." He said and left the room.

"Night." Scarlett muttered a while later.

Scarlett changed her underwear, but still ended up putting a fresh pair of jeans and a shirt on. It was surprisingly cold during the night and her blanket was basically a sheet, which provided little to no warmth. She then spread some moisturiser to her wrists and went to sleep. It was safe to say that she was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

A bit later, she woke for a brief moment, thinking she had heard a noise. She felt disoriented. She had the thought that she might get up and check, but her eyes were drooping closed with sleep drawing her back into its sweet embrace. When the room was completely silent, she relaxed. However right before she could turn around to her other side, she felt a jolt of pain at the back of her head and everything around her went black.

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><p><strong>AN: So. What did you think?**

**Reviews are better than being handcuffed to a radiator, trust me.**

**Adiós amigos.**

**-Max**


	3. Chapter 3

****Disclaimer: I do not own anything in my stories except for the ****_fan_**** fiction (including plots, OC's and so on). All the characters belong to the rightful owners. Any songs/poems/etc in my stories do ****_not_**** belong to me unless stated otherwise.****

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><p><strong>AN: Amigos.**

**I have an action packed little chapter for you people this time around. I do apologize for it's shortness in length, but I sincerely hope the contents of it will make up for it.**

**I don't usually like using caps in stories, but I kind of felt it necessary to get a few points across.**

**Also...**

**TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE, ATTEMPTED RAPE, VIOLENCE, AND A LITTLE BIT OF TORTURE.**

**Now that that is out of the way, do continue on.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

**"_I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then."_**

When Scarlett came to conciousness her hands were tied above her head, she was standing and her head hurt like a motherfucker. She groaned as she leaned her head back, moving it made her feel like she was spinning. She felt ill, like she was going to throw up. She didn't see clearly for minutes, only registering vague and smudgy shapes in the darkness, though she heard muffled voices around her. When she regained her vision and hearing, minutes later, she saw that there were a bunch of pirates around her, all of them on various levels of drunkenness. A gag was tied around her head, pulling at her cheeks painfully and robbing her the ability to speak and shout. As she scanned the crowd, neither Gareth nor Vaas was anywhere in sight. A pair of rough hands went to her waist in an attempt to unbutton her jeans, as the man, who Scar recognized to be the man who she slapped because of the coin joke, laughed.

"GARETH!" Scarlett tried to scream but it came out muffled because of the gag. Even without the gag it would have been neither clear nor loud enough to be heard over the mens laughter.

"You fucking puta. I will make you mine and you will fucking enjoy it." The Coin Man laughed as he pressed a hand onto her breast. "That will teach you not to turn me away, nobody fucking refuses _me_! You should be glad that someone will even fuck you, stupid little bitch. You're mine now. I fucking own you."

His hands went to undo his belt, a pleased grin on his lips. Scarlett leaned back against the wooden pole she was tied to, it was thick and didn't budge when she swayed. She grabbed the rope tied around her wrists with her hands and pulled her knees up, then kicked the man as hard as she could across the chest. Her arms and wrists were in awful pain, the latter were still sore from having the handcuffs for two days. Scarlett was pretty sure that the friction from the rope combined with the previous wounds was enough to break the skin and make them bleed.

Coin Man fell down as Scarlett tried to yank her hands out of the ropes. When the man managed to get to his feet again he slapped Scarlett hard across the face. "Feels fucking great doesn't it?" He slapped her again and again. A total of seven times. Scarlett bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes because of the pain that was radiating from her head to the rest of her body.

Coin Man then balled up his fist and hit her hard in the stomach, her spine and the back of her head hit the wooden pole hard making her cry out in pain. This seemed to encourage the men as they laughed and edged the Coin Man on. He groped her and placed sloppy kisses on her neck, it made her want to throw up. Scarlett's ears were ringing and her vision had little black spots in it. He punched her again.

When the man moved a metre away from her, she pulled up her legs again and tried to kick him. The Coin Man quickly stepped aside, pulling out a knife from the back of his cargo pants. Her knife. With one quick movement he cut from the inner edge of her collar bone down toward the middle of her breasts. The smell of blood filled the air around Scarlett.

"Puta, try to tone down your fucking fire! Eh? Otherwise I will have to kill you before we have any fun!" Coin Man laughed, grazing the tip of the blade against Scarlett's cheek.

Scarlett felt her heart beating like a drum, blood rushing in hear ears and pain radiating all over her body, almost paralysing her. She felt like crying but her eyes were dry.

_It's now or never_. Her inner voice warned her.

Scarlett tried to steady her breathing as the Coin Man slapped her again and went back to undoing his pants. Scar placed both of her legs steadily onto the ground, her body screamed at her to stop moving because every movement felt like she was being stabbed. She counted her breaths to ten and then yanked her arms down with as much strength as she could muster. Somehow from somewhere the rope let loose or broke and even though her arms were still tied she wasn't tied to the pole anymore. Scarlett swung both of her fists into the Coin Man's face, he fell down and the pirates went silent, slowly backing away.

The adrenaline rushing through her veins cancelled out the pain that she was in to the point where she didn't feel it at all. Her chest was heaving violently and her eyes were wide with fury. She looked deadly... and slightly unhinged. Scarlett tugged her hands free from the ropes while the man was on the ground holding his jaw. She landed a hard kick into the Coin Man's ribs. Then she untied the gag from around her head and tied it around her knuckles.

She noticed the Coin Mans mouth was bleeding. She didn't care, she was livid. She pulled the man up by his shirt, so his head was no longer on the ground, and punched him hard in the face, letting him hit the ground with a smack.

"Number one," She shouted, "I am _not_ fucking_ yours_." She kicked him hard in the side, hopefully breaking a few of his ribs. "Number two, I am not anybodys fucking property!" She grabbed him by his shirt again and punched him before he could react. "Motherfucking _three_! YOU DO NOT FUCKING _OWN_ ME, ASSHOLE." She sat on top of the man and punched him again and again and again in the face. He struggled at first but soon was incapable.

She didn't stop when the man's face was completely covered in bright red blood. She didn't stop when she felt the man go limp underneath her. She didn't stop when the man started choking on his own blood. She didn't stop punching him until a strong pair of arms pulled her off of the Coin Man.

She didn't even look who it was but guessed it to be Gareth. She spat on the Coin Man. "Fuck you."

"C'mon doll, let's get you cleaned up." Gareth said to her as they started walking away. "SOMEBODY CLEAN THIS FUCKING SHIT UP." He shouted to the men and held Scarlett close, carrying most of her weight. Her hand was completely numb, her head still hurt from her being knocked out, her stomach and back hurt more and more with every movement, not to mention the big gash on her chest which was still bleeding heavily, and she felt like emptying her insides. The initial shock of being knocked out, disgust and the amount of blood all contributing to the need to throw up.

Scarlett didn't know where he was leading her, she couldn't pay that much attention to her surroundings. Her breaths came irregularly and she was starting to shake, the adrenaline was leaving her body and she was most likely starting to go into shock. Scarlett was in terrible pain. She kept her eyes turned up onto Gareth, who looked pissed off, and tried to time her breathing with his. Scarlett noticed at one point that he said something to someone, but she didn't concentrate enough to figure out what and to who.

Gareth carried her up two flights of stairs and a moment later he placed her onto a soft bed. Scarlett let her body relax as much as she could, though it seemed to her that she only tensed up more. She felt her arm lift, "Jesus fucking Christ, kid. You got him good." Scarlett tried to laugh, but it hurt so much that it came out as a groan. She kept her eyes on Gareth as he examined her hand further. Her eyes began to droop. "Hey. HEY!" Gareth grabbed her shoulders and shook her, not hard but enough to wake her. "I need you to stay awake, you might have a serious concussion."

"Hmm..." Scarlett managed to grumble, trying to hold her eyes open. "How's the hand?" She rasped out, her throat dry. She heard the door open and close.

"Your hand has three teeth lodged in it, the fabric reduced the damage a little bit. Can you move it?" Gareth questioned.

Scarlett tried to will her hand to move, sharp pains shot through it and she groaned out in pain. She saw a figure move next to Gareth but her brain didn't register who it was as she kept her eyes on the elderly man.

Suddenly she felt pressure on her chest and she let out a groan as the pain registered to her. "What the hell?"

Gareth opened the first aid kit and Scarlett's eyes fell closed. Her breathing was steady and she felt her muscles relaxing. Somebody shook her and her eyes opened again. "I'm awake." She dragged the last word out, her voice weak.

"I'll get her water," Gareth said, stood and walked away. The door closing signalled that Gareth wasn't in the room anymore.

She moved her head, trying to see who was pushing down on her chest. Surprise filled her as she saw Vaas. "You did fucking good out there, hermana,"

"Was it you?" Scarlett croaked. "Did you make them...?" She trailed off.

Vaas' eyes flashed. "No."

Vaas kept pressing down on the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. A couple of minutes later he took the rag away, threw it on the ground while grabbing another one from the foot of the bed. As Scarlett eyed Vaas, she realized he was hard to look at, almost like the sun. It's impressive, but you couldn't stare at it. For if you did, it would blind you. She was constantly looking back and forth between his face and the ceiling, as if she was scared of what would happen if Vaas would catch her.

Vaas' eyes roamed over the fresh cut, trying to determine the severity of it.

Scarlett spoke up in a broken voice. "My eyes are up here, asshole."

Vaas barked a laugh and pressed the fresh rag back onto her chest. The door opened and Gareth walked back in. After giving Scarlett a sip of water, the bear-of-a-man sat down. With a pair of forceps Gareth started pulling out the teeth in Scarlett's hand. Then he cut the fabric of the gag away from her hand, being as gentle as his rough hands would allow. "This is going to hurt," Gareth said and placed a piece of brown leather into her mouth, "bite down on it as hard as you can, okay?" Scarlett nodded weakly, her heart speeding up again "Three... Two... One."

Scarlett bit down as hard as possible as sharp pain shot through her arm, all of her muscles tensed so every injury made itself known. Scarlett let out a scream, slightly muffled by the piece of leather as her eyes squeezed shut. Tears started streaming down her face. Again the pain came and she screamed.

"Breathe, doll. Breathe." Gareth commanded her, as she let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in. When she opened her eyes again, the black spots in her vision were back. Gareth removed the leather. "It was the antiseptic, we can't have you walking around with an infected hand. I'm sorry I hurt you." Gareth wiped the tears from her face as she steadied her breathing. "You want some good news, doll?"

Scarlett managed to nod, the pain now pulsating slowly through her body and the black spots starting to fade away.

"Your hand isn't broken."

Scarlett let out a croak of a laugh. "It's been a while," She swallowed, "A while since I've beat someone like that." She laughed again and her chest and stomach hurt, her left hand immediately went to touch the latter. Although her skin was tender to touch, it provided with a small amount of comfort. "The beauty of guns." She managed to keep her eyes open for a few moments and Gareth gave her pain medicine.

"Hey, hey, hey, you have to stay awake hermana!" Vaas said, shaking her slightly again.

"No." She moaned out the word and shook head. "So tired."

"I know you're tired, but you have to do this. Okay?" Gareth held her eyes with his. "Am I blurry?"

"A little."

"Your head hurts?"

"Yes."

"Do you feel nauseous?"

"Yes."

He asked about a couple more symptoms, and then continued to clean her hand. "Can I sleep now?"

"No. No. Hell no." Gareth said. "You _have to_ stay awake."

Scarlett let out a breath. "Tell me a story." She needed something to focus on. Something to act as a lifeline to reality.

There was a moment of silence. She noticed how Gareth gave Vaas a wary look, "I remember the last time I spoke with your mother." Gareth said quietly and Scarlett's breath hitched, this time not because of the pain. "She spoke of you and Will." Will was Scarlett's father. "She spoke of the day that you were born." He let out a chuckle. "I remember Will before you were born. Damn, he would not say a word more than he had to. Hell he probably wouldn't even say those. According to your mother the first night you were brought home Will sat in the nursery all night on the cold floor. Remember that house? It had those awful stone floors. Anyway, he sat on the floor with his suit on and his hair ruffled... And he told you stories. He told you every single story he knew."

Tears were streaming down Scarlett's face, but she made no move to wipe them. "Your mother heard all of them and she said _that_ was the first time she had ever heard him talk that much. Apparently he told you _everything_. What he did and who he was. He spoke of the things he believed in and the things that he didn't understand. He spoke of how he didn't understand you, but he wanted to. He said... He said that to him, you were a saviour. You were given to Will and your mother to save them. A beacon of light." Gareth sighed.

"And she said that every year, on that night, he would talk to you. When you were older he would start off with reading a book, but when you fell asleep he would pour his soul out to you. He wanted to get out of business, to have a real honest life with you and your ma. Literally the _day_ you were born, we started planning. He didn't want you have a life like this. It funny though. I was there the moment that Will started to feel like a father. Before you were born Will kept telling me that he didn't know how to be a father and he sure as hell didn't feel like he was soon to be one. It was in the evening of the day you were born, I came to the hospital to see your ma and Will. Will kept staring at you," Gareth chuckled and shook his head.

"He loved you so much from the moment you were born, I think the quantity of it terrified him. Anyway, when your ma was holding you. You grabbed Will's finger and I swear to God the man stopped breathing. Ten minutes later we were out in the hallway, planning to end the business for good." Gareth sighed.

"The last time I spoke with your mother she said that you brought out the good in people. I mean, you don't know what Will was like before you were born but god," Gareth laughed. "Stubborn and serious as hell. Anyway, she said you brought out the good in him. The good, the gentle and the kind. I remember one of the first things he did after you were born, was that he removed all of the guns from the house, all of the documents that had anything to do with his work. As if he was making sure the house had no evil in it. Your ma said you took his pain away. That's why she gave you the middle name of Epione. In Greek mythology, if I remember correct, she was the goddess of soothing of pain. She never told Will why she picked the name."

Gareth laughed again, this time so that he didn't even try to contain it. "I was there the first time he held you, you know. Jesus fucking Christ. When the nurse asked him to put you down so they could take you to sleep," He let out a hearty laugh. "I thought he was going to shoot the fucking nurse. Imagine a five year old getting their favourite toy and then a couple of minutes later being asked to give it back. It ended so that you slept in the room with your ma and Will. He scared the shit out of her." He laughed again and Scarlett smiled through her tears, nobody ever spoke about her parents like this, rarely even Gareth. "Where was I? Oh yes, you bring out the good in people. It sounds odd, but it's true. Hell, you even bought out the good in an old fart like me. Your ma said that no matter what happened in life, she wished that you would never lost that ability." He started into the distance for a moment.

"I was supposed to protect you. You weren't supposed to grow up a warrior, mean and cruel. I shouldn't have done this to you and I am so sorry. I should have put you through the best schools, hell we could have moved somewhere else so you could have had that. You could have done anything in this world and you wouldn't have had blood on your hands. I wasn't thinking then. Or maybe I was thinking, but I was thinking the wrong things. I'm sorry I raised you a killer." He stopped talking, his hands has stilled as well.

After a moment of silence. "Is that why you left?"

Scarlett never got her answer, because Gareth changed the subject. "Your hand is wrapped."

Vaas pulled the rag away from her chest, most of the bleeding had stopped. "Monroe will be here in the morning to give you stitches." Not long after the bleeding stopped and Gareth put small strips, of what highly resembled tape, onto her chest wound to hold it as closed as possible.

As promised, the next day Monroe showed up. He first cleaned and stitched her chest wound and then put a couple of stitches onto her right hand. He let her know how to care for the wounds.

"When will I get them off?" She questioned.

Monroe sighed and took a sip of water, it was another hot-as-hell day in the jungle. "Well the hand will probably heal in a week. About five to ten days, I would say. The chest is a whole different thing. Usually chest wounds take a week to two to heal. I'm quite certain that yours is pushing closer to two weeks."

The day after, Scarlett was up and about. Sure, everything still hurt like a bitch but she wasn't going to show it. After she woke up she changed her clothes, cleaned her wounds and put fresh bandages on them. She popped two pain killers into her mouth, downed them with water and headed out.

The pirates averted their eyes as soon as she stepped out, they didn't exactly fear her but they didn't _not_ fear her either. That little episode with Coin Man, whose name turned out to be Felipe, managed to really make them understand that Scarlett was not a person to fuck with. Sure, Vaas had told them that she wasn't to be touched, but now they actually respected that. For the most part anyway.

Hoyt called after Monroe left the day before, asking how Scarlett was settling in. She did note that when she got on the phone, the big boss was almost surprised to hear her voice. She didn't tell him about what happened with Felipe, he didn't need to know because the information had nothing to do with her mission here. The information that Hoyt passed onto her confirmed the fact that she was going to be here longer than she originally thought.

A loud whistle sounded across the camp. "Eey! Hermana! Scarlett!" Vaas' voice came from rather far. Scarlett started to move toward the direction of the voice and soon Vaas came into her view, a cigarette on his lips.

"Can I bum one?" She asked, motioning to the cigarette.

Vaas raised his eyebrows and he glanced back and forth between the cigarette and the woman "Oh no no, those things are bad. A mujer like you should not smoke, this shit causes cancer."

Scarlett merely raised an eyebrow and Vaas pulled the pack out of his pocket. Scarlett quickly grabbed one out of the pack and Vaas lit it for her, she nodded in thanks. Scarlett had quit a while back when she realized what an effect they had on her stamina. Cigarettes were for special occasion only, now they started seeming more like a habit again. "Why did you shout for me?"

A malicious grin rose to Vaas' lips. "Oh yes, I almost forgot." He slung his arm around her shoulders, again his hand threateningly close to her neck. Enough to raise the hairs on her neck and make her worry about her safety. "I have a surprise for you."

"I don't like surprises." That was a lie, Scarlett loved surprises. Though the kind she liked tended to be gifts, surprise parties and the like.

Vaas laughed, "You'll fucking love this one." He was leading her toward the rejects cages and the worry for her safety was going bigger, the only thing that offered her comfort was that her knife was tucked into her boot. She swallowed as she looked at the miserable faces in the cages, each and every one eyeing Vaas like he was the devil. In their eyes, he was.

"Remember, the world you live in today is not the same as it was yesterday. It won't be the same tomorrow. You must _adapt_. You're in the jungle now. The surprise, mujer," Vaas said as he pointed to a wooden pole, identical to the one she was tied to if not the very same, to which Coin Man was tied to. Felipe was almost unrecognisable due to his face being rather swollen and red.

Felipe seemed to spot them from the distance and immediately started screaming, trying to tug the ropes open. Scarlett took a drag from the cigarette and walked forward. Gareth was sitting on a pile of boxes on the side and smiled and waved at Scarlett as she walked up to him.

"Like the surprise?" Vaas wondered with a smile, looking rather proud of himself.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?" She asked.

"STOP FUCKING SCREAMING!" Vaas shouted, who was now halfway between Felipe and Scarlett and Gareth. "You are fucking embarrassing yourself, amigo." He slowly walked toward the man, like a predator stalking a prey. Slow and deliberate movements, he wasn't in a hurry and he didn't need to be. Everything about the way he moved screamed that he was in control and that Felipe wasn't going to get away. Scarlett was glad that she wasn't at the receiving end of that. "What was the first motherfucking thing I told the men?"

When Felipe didn't answer, Vaas pressed a gun to his forehead. "WHAT THE FUCK DID I TELL YOU?" He screamed, making Felipe flinch and turn his face away. "No no no no no. You fucking look me in the fucking eye and tell me WHAT DID I TELL YOU!"

Felipe hesitantly turned his eyes onto Vaas'. "You said..." He stuttered.

"What did I fucking say?" Vaas asked, pressing the gun tighter to Felipe's forehead. "Huh?"

Felipe looked like he was about to cry. "We can't touch her. Y-you said we can't touch her."

Vaas nodded and pulled the gun from Felipe's head. Vaas slowly paced infront of him, waving his gun as he spoke. "And what did you do, hermano? Huh? WHAT THE FUCK DID _YOU DO_?" When Felipe started screaming again, Vaas shot him in the leg. "STOP SCREAMING YOU FUCKING SHITHEAD." He let out a cruel laugh. "SHUT THE FUCK UP. SHUT THE _FUCK _UP. Okay, I'm going to chill hermano. I asked, what did you do?"

"Touched her," Felipe managed to stutter out. "I touched her." He managed to turn his screams into quieter wails of pain.

"Yes, you fucking did." Vaas scratched his head with his gun. "You fucking touched her, even though I specifically asked you fucking not to. _You touched her_! Why? Huh? Did I not make myself fucking clear?" He said, tucking the gun away. "You know. As much as I would like to fucking kill you myself for disobeying orders, hermano." Vaas laughed. "I am dying to see what the mujer will do to you."

Vaas walked toward Scarlett and Gareth. He pulled out a gun from the back of his trousers and held it out to Scarlett. She caught Vaas' eye and the look in them was terrifying. It was a bloodthirsty, crazed and almost manic look. Scarlett took the gun, noting that it was still slightly warm from being in contact with Vaas' skin.

"Have fun," Vaas smirked and gave her a wink. She proceeded to walk toward Felipe as Vaas took a seat next to Gareth and lit up another cigarette.

When Scarlett looked into Felipes eyes, she was surprised to see that he was amused. That moment made her wonder how many peoples, how many hostages, hands had Vaas put a gun in and told them to kill. How many times the hostages had broken down sobbing, unable to do it. Scarlett was sure that there had been many, so she didn't exactly strike fear into his heart. The thing was that she wasn't a hostage and she did not have a problem with killing.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She wondered, her tone casual. Trying to mimic Vaas' body language from before, but she felt like it didn't come off at all. Her torso hurt, so she couldn't straighten it properly, and Vaas always stood his with torso tensed and fairly straight.

Felipe merely laughed. Scarlett walked closer to him. First she tucked Vaas' gun to the back of her jeans and then her hands went to his belt. Felipe smirked. "You know you were right, I do want you." Scarlett turned to look at Gareth and Vaas, who were both visibly confused. She winked at them and then yanked down Felipes pants and smiled at him while grabbing the blade from her boot.

Felipe's face paled immediately and he started shaking his head. "No. No. No. No. Please no!"

Scarlett continued to smile sweetly as she pressed the blade against his family jewels. "What's the matter? You wanted this remember?" She asked. He was crying, hot and fat tears were rolling down his dirty cheeks. She didn't care, she knew if she was to survive here she was going to have to stoop down to their level. "You can never touch a woman or even_ try_ to touch a woman without their consent. _Ever_." She was deadly calm, her eyes boring into his. "Remember that." With a quick flick of her wrist the air was filled with agonized screaming.

Scarlett took a deep breath and turned to walk away. "Leave him there." She commanded and kept walking, she didn't turn to look at Vaas and Gareth. She didn't even look back at Felipe. Regret started seeping into her heart, but other feelings over powered that regret. There was joy and happiness in her, she was content with herself. It was terrifying because she could handle killing, but this was torture.

She threw Felipes dick to the feet of the pirates who were standing close together in a group, speciating the whole ordeal. Scarlett didn't bother to look at them, her point was clear. She heard Vaas' laughter over Felipes screaming.

"Wow!" Vaas exclaimed, dragging out the 'o'.

_You're in the jungle now._

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><p><strong>AN: As per usual, please do leave all and any thoughts into the reviews. If you enjoyed it, then add it to your favourites and alerts.**

**Reviews are better than getting your dick cut off.**

**No really, they are.**

**Adiós amigos.**

**-Max**


	4. Chapter 4

****Disclaimer: I do not own anything in my stories except for the ****_fan_**** fiction (including plots, OC's and so on). All the characters belong to the rightful owners. Any songs/poems/etc in my stories do ****_not_**** belong to me unless stated otherwise.****

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><p><strong>AN: Hello.**

**Can I just say that I think this chapter is a whole large load of shait?**

**I had massive, and I mean fucking massive, writers block with this one. It was supposed to be so much better because since I started this whole story, this chapter has been the one I had been looking forward to.**

**I finished 80% of it today, so please excuse any and all mistakes for I'm sure there are a lot of them. I haven't really proof read this at all.**

**Also, my chapters seem to be getting shorter and shorter and I don't really like it.**

**I should probably let you guys get on with it...**

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><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

"_**I'm afraid I can't explain myself, sir. Because I am not myself, you see?"**_

"What the hell was that?" Gareth boomed and slammed the door closed behind him. Scarlett's head was pounding already. "Scarlett."

She felt like she was fifteen years old again and he was scolding her for something. "What do you want me to say?" She stood up and put her hands on her hips. "If you want me to say that I am sorry for what I did out there, know that I am not going to. Gareth he tried to _rape_ me. Because of him I will have a nasty-ass fucking scar across my chest for the rest of my life. Also, need I remind you, he tried to fucking rape me!" She shouted.

"Scarlett."

"No!" She kept shouting and Gareth sat down. "You have _no_ right to do this. You have no fucking right to make me feel bad about this, even though I probably should. I mean. Fuck! I just tortured a man, but he fucking deserved it! He fucking deserved it alright!"

"Scarlett!"

"Gareth! I'm not eighteen anymore. You have to let me make my own decisions, because I will make them whether you want to or not. Whether _you_ like them or not." She let out a sigh and sat down next to Gareth. The two fell into silence.

"I figured I could still fix my mistakes." Gareth spoke softly. "I made a promise to your parents. I thought I was fixing it by leaving, I guess not."

"What exactly do you mean?"

"You were going to go off to university, I knew you would professionally take up being a hired gun if I was around. So I figured that if I faked my death, you'd put all of that behind you."

"You could have told me, you know." Scarlett said, wiping the hair off her face. "I wouldn't have listened to you, but you could have still told me."

"I realize that now."

"Plus it's too late. It was too late then." Scarlett shook her head. "I'm not something you can fix, I don't need _fixing_. You never made me a killer, I did that myself."

Gareth shook his head. "But I helped. Concious or unconscious."

"Still not your fault." Scarlett snorted a laugh. "Still not a reason to fake your death." She nudged the man in the ribs with her elbow.

The day passed, Scarlett survived on pain killers. She went up onto the roof at some point, she wasn't sure whose roof it was or was she allowed there or not, but to be honest she didn't care all that much at that point. She had a pair of sunglasses, a bottle of water and she could see most of the camp from where she was.

_Perfect._ Her inner voice commented and self-fived like Barney Stinson from _How I Met Your Mother._

"Fucking nerd," Scarlett said out loud and shook her head. She sat there for hours, seeing how the camp and the pirates in it worked. She noticed how Vaas toyed with the hostages and mercilessly killed the rejects. She watched as Gareth made the men sweat and throw up from working out so hard in the heat. She realized that she didn't even know how Gareth had ended up here or what he was doing here. She made a mental note to ask him later when she went to have dinner.

An hour before the sun set loud music started blasting out from somewhere. Guessing by the direction of it, it came from Turkey Point. Apparently that's what the men called the dining hut. She came to the conclusion that this whole thing, sitting hours upon hours on the roof, had been a waste of time, she was going to reach no conclusions by merely sitting there. Though she did get a good overview of the place, meaning that she doubted that she would be lost in the place again.

In a half an hour she was down from the roof, with a clean bandage across her chest and a full bottle of cool water. When she finally made her way to Turkey Point, the area surrounding it was filled with pirates drinking and eating and dancing to the music. Scarlett noticed that the two hostages that used to hang from the ceiling were removed by now. Her stomach scrunched in worry when she thought of what happened to them. With a lump in her throat she grabbed a plate, got her dinner and a full glass of whisky. Then went to sit down at a table with Gareth.

"Evening, doll."

"Evening, Old Man." She imitated him and dug into her food. While chewing on a piece of potato, she wondered out loud. "Are there showers or something of the like here?"

Gareth nodded. "Yeah, but right now in this heat they don't really work. The men usually go to clean themselves on the beach, _if_ they clean themselves. There's a waterfall nearby though, I can take you there tomorrow. None of the men go there because they're not fucked to walk the distance, plus Vaas doesn't let them use the trucks for shit like that anymore." Gareth laughed.

Scarlett smiled. "Thank you. I feel so fucking sweaty and sticky and greasy. It's disgusting really." She took another bite of her food. "Why can't they use the trucks though?"

"They can use the trucks, but not when they're going to scrub themselves. A while back this one guy drove one of the fucking trucks into a lake. Actually that has happened four or five times in total. That particular time Vaas was making rounds on the main island and happened to be at that camp." Gareth shook his head.

"Making rounds?" She wondered, taking a sip of her whisky.

"Yeah, basically what it is, is that he goes through each outpost on the island. Making sure shit is in order and the sort. It's a shit process and takes a hell of a long time, but it's got to be done."

Scarlett nodded, her fingers playing with the rim of her glass, and after a moment she spoke again. "By the way, you never told me how you ended up here."

Gareth put his fork down, the corners of his mouth pulling down slightly. He was obviously unhappy with the direction of the conversation, but spoke none the less."Well, uh. After dying," he made air-quotes with his fingers when he said the word 'dying', "in Mexico. I went to Switzerland, where I met this rich guy who was planning on making a trip here. Apparently he thought there was treasure hidden on this island by the natives, the Rakyat. He had a whole crew together, except that he was lacking on security. So I offered myself. Legally I was dead and a trip to an unmapped island sounded pretty good." He took a swig of water.

"When we got here, the boat was raided by the pirates. I was the only one who survived, in that matter of speaking. They let the captain and the rich guy live for a while, but neither of them exactly fought back. Vaas was surprised at the fact that I did. He was impressed too, but he won't admit it." Gareth chuckled. "I know he was. Anyway, I managed to cut a deal with him. I went through a couple of... uh, trials. I guess you could call them that."

"Trials?" Scarlett raised her eyebrows in doubt. When she bought her glass to her lips, she noticed that she had drank more than half of it already and it was starting to make her brain fuzzy. Scar had always hated how much of a lightweight she had been.

"I had to fight a bunch of guys on several occasions." Gareth shrugged, brushing it off as nothing, and continued his story. "So I got a spot here. Over time I proved my loyalty and experience, now I'm training the men."

"So you're pretty much the main mercenary?"

"I guess you could say that, yeah." Gareth leaned back in his chair.

In the moment of silence that fell at their table, Scar was able to notice a few things through her tipsy brain. First off that there were several languages spoken at the same time. Smiley was speaking French with two others, different versions of Spanish, Portuguese and what she guessed to be the native language of the island seemed to be popular. She thought she even heard Italian at one point, including many others.

Secondly, how odd it all seemed. Alien, for some reason. How there were so many different kinds of people here. Everyone so different and surprisingly open minded. No one seemed to care where you were from, who you were or what skin colour you had, as long as you could shoot a gun. It seemed odd to her that men who were murderers and who would be called savages anywhere else but on the Rook Islands, were more human than most of the people who ran countries in the rest of the world. She of course realized that she could be wrong, perhaps there were things the men weren't saying about what they thought of one another.

"Did you end up going to university, by the way?" Gareth's voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

Scar looked up and saw Carlos approaching. He wore a white v-neck shirt, the red bandanna loosely around his neck, and jeans and she wanted to slap herself for noticing the dark hair and muscled chest that peaked from his shirt before lifting her eyes up to look at his face. His hair was the most unruly thing she'd ever seen, the brown locks sat in a wild mess atop his head. It made him look like he had been very thoroughly fucked, then again for all she knew he could have been. A strong jawline lined with stubble drew in her eye before she met his gaze.

Quickly, she focused on Gareth again, her cheeks tingeing with pink. Internally cursing the alcohol which was affecting her so strongly. "I did, actually. I was pretty sure that I was not going to go, but Shaun actually pushed me into it." She said and Carlos sat down next to her. "I don't know if you know, but your death got pinned onto The Auzric Brothers."

"Yeah, I heard. Why?" Gareth asked with a hint of hesitation.

She felt like she was six years old and ate the last cookie without Gareth's permission. "I _may_ have killed them."

Gareth raised his eyebrows and his smacked the table. His voice was laced with surprise and humour when he spoke. "You _may_ have killed them?"

Scarlett shrugged. "Eye for an eye."

"That's what you seem to be all about these days." Gareth retorted and Scarlett could feel an argument coming on.

"Hold on," Carlos spoke. "The Auzric Brothers, where have I heard that?"

Gareth lit up a cigarette. "They ran one of the biggest drug cartels in northern Mexico," Gareth chuckled. "How the hell did you manage to take them down? They had more security than the fucking US president."

"A girl has got to have her secrets, no? Though I'll tell you this much, a pair of heels, a short dress and red lipstick helped quite a bit." Scarlett smiled triumphantly.

Gareth groaned. "My God, you were _eighteen_!"

"I was on a _mission_!" She raised her voice a little.

Gareth slammed his fist down on the table, "You weren't supposed to go after anyone in the first place!" He shouted back.

"I thought you _died_! I thought they killed you, Gareth. I had no choice!" Scarlett accused.

"Yes, you did!"

"As did you!" Scarlett snarled, eyes lit up with fury, and Gareth fell silent.

After a moment Carlos cleared his throat while running his hand through his hair, messing it up even more. "By the way Kidd, Vaas wants you to go make rounds tomorrow with Monroe."

"How come?" Gareth asked.

Carlos ran his hands through his hair, pushing it off his face. "A couple of privateers are coming to get hostages to pass onto buyers and you know how Vaas is about the privateers."

Gareth nodded with a sigh. "Alright, can you take Scar down to the waterfall to clean up? I promised I'd do it tomorrow."

"Can't." Carlos lit up a smoke. "I have to head down to Nat's Repairs with Kip, they got attacked and the alarm blew. Sorry."

"Fuck," Gareth muttered.

"Have Vaas take her."

Gareth opened his mouth to say something but then faltered. "That's actually not a bad idea."

Scarlett raised her eyebrow at the older man, wanting to comment but she didn't. Her need to clean herself was too big to actually mind who was going to show her where the waterfall was. Plus, no matter how bad Vaas was, he was still better than Smiley and his kin.

"By the way," Scarlett asked, her hand going up to motion to the commotion surrounding them. "Are we celebrating something?"

Carlos chuckled and shook his head. "Oh no, it's just the guys blowing off steam. Life gets pretty routine and tough, so they need an outlet."

Scarlett raised her eyebrows and down the very last drop of her whisky. "This? _This_ is how they blow off steam?" She was in disbelief. There were a bunch of pirates in a state of drunkenness dancing around to Latin music and singing along.

"Yes," Carlos responded to her, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You expected something different?"

"I figured you'd have... Hookers. Or something." To be honest, Scar didn't even know what she had thought. Perhaps she had thought that the pirates blew off steam by killing people, which seemed like a logical thing.

Carlos' mouth stretched out into a grin, his eyes filling with mischief. "The hookers will come later. Don't worry."

Scarlett nodded, reaching for her glass only to remember it was empty. Little by little the table they were sitting at started filling up. First it was Kip, then a man who she had never met with lightly orange hair and a pair of rectangular glasses. Later on a drunk Vaas, with fresh wounds, joined them as well. Some of the pirates had lit a fire nearby, casting a soft orange glow on everyone.

Scarlett was feeling actually drunk from the alcohol by now and incredibly engrossed in a story that Carlos was telling. She didn't even notice Kip and the ginger man disappear, when she finally did notice, she didn't hesitate to ask about their absence.

"They're probably fucking somewhere like_ conejito_s." Vaas slurred and emptied the label-less bottle in his hand.

Carlos leaned closer towards her, making her skin prickle where his breath hit it. "Translation: bunnies."

"Kip is gay?" She wondered, her voice coming out almost as a shout.

Carlos nodded and Vaas raised his eyebrows. "Why are you so fucking shocked? Huh, mujer." The corners of his mouth pulled into a cocky smirk. "Does Scarlett have a crush?"

"No, I just-"

Vaas cut her off with a loud, drunken laugh. "Don't worry, you'll find someone who isn't gay." With a wink he got up and walked over to the table where the food usually was and grabbed another one of the label-less bottles off of it.

A while later she was sitting on the hand rail that surrounded the Turkey Point deck. A bunch of the pirates were swaying or dancing to the music, a few of them muttered the words. Her eyes soon fixed onto Vaas, who had a bottle in one of his hands and an unrecognisable piece of technology in the other. His hips were subtly, but perfectly shaking along to the music.

It seemed so... Not Vaas. It had been only hours before that she had seen the man toy with the hostages, grazing their cheeks with the barrel of his gun. Taunting them with snide little comments and chuckles. She had seen the small, cruel smirk on his lips as he put bullets into the heads of the rejects.

_She heard a gunshot ringing through the air. Quickly, she made her way up from her spot and climb down from the roof. She headed toward where the sound came from, but with the fear of being spotted by Vaas, she stood in a nook between two houses. Shielding her from view while still being close enough to hear bits and pieces._

_Vaas was standing on top of a platform that consisted of a wooden frame, a crossbeam on two upright beams. With a shaky breath out she recognized it to be the gallows. Four people were kneeling in front of Vaas with their hands tied behind their backs and a fifth already limp of the ground, explaining the gunshot._

_He said something to them, though she couldn't make out what and then shot two more of them. Vaas kneeled in front of one of them and spoke, this time Scar was able to make out a few small bits. "... Nobody wants to pay for you... You are worthless... I see it all the time. People say 'Family is priceless, family is priceless', no no no please. That is fucking bullshit. Family is..." Vaas' voice was washed away by the wind rustling the trees surrounding them, only a whistle he let out carried out to her._

_A second later Vaas was on his feet and shot the person he had been speaking to. The last man, wearing a light blue shirt and a pair of khaki shorts, winced and sobbed. Every inch of Scarlett was screaming for her to go there and stop the maniac, but she knew it would do no good and would only mean her death._

"_Hermano..." Vaas said, pointing the gun to the mans head. "Look me in the eye..." When the man managed to lift his head and make eye contact with Vaas, the Pirate King cocked his head to the side. "I am going to kill you." A fraction of a second later a gunshot rang through the air and a heavy thump a moment later confirmed that the man in the blue shirt was indeed dead._

_Scarlett couldn't tear her eyes away from it, she could barely even blink. Vaas let out a chuckle and eyed all of the dead bodied. "Did you," Another chuckle. "Did you realize that I just shot them all in sequence?" The scarred man looked at the pirates who were scattered around the area._

_She didn't know if any of them said anything, but Vaas spoke up again. "One after the other, I did not do that one purpose." He paced slowly infront of the bodies, back straight like the cock of the walk. "You start to think about the small coincidences in life... Will you clean this fucking shit up?" In a fraction of a second, his voice changed from joking to pissed off. Vaas motioned to the dead bodies and walked off the gallows._

Scarlett shook her head as her eyes were on the Pirate King. She didn't understand him. He was completely calm and joking one moment and then he could kick off and break a few things or kill a few people, and then a few moments later he could be laughing about something completely else. He was impulsive and unstable to a certain extent, yet she couldn't fear him the same way that the hostages and even some of the pirates feared him. It was terrifying, because in the end... what did that say about her?

She sat there for a while, so lost in her own head that she had completely overlooked the arrival of a bunch of women. They were all clad in rags and were bone thin, with sunken faces and wobbly feet. She knew for a fact that the women were under the influence of some stronger drugs. Just before she was going to jump down from the handrail she saw a person lean on the railing next to her. She looked over her shoulder and the first thing she saw was a jagged scar across a mans head.

Vaas.

A moment later he stood up straight and leaned against the railing, so that they were facing the opposite ways. Vaas reeked of alcohol and cigarettes and sweat, though she doubted she smelled any better.

"You know... _Mina_." He trailed a finger on her hand which was resting on the railing. "When you get bored, you know where to find me." He lazily pointed to a house which was in better condition that most around here.

"There are many others who wouldn't mind... wetting your pipe." Scarlett said.

The corner of Vaas' mouth pulled up just a fraction. "I know." He licked his lips and lit up a smoke. "Perhaps te deseo."

Scarlett didn't know what he said, but she still had some alcohol in her system and that made her braver, and more flirty, than usual. "Don't tempt me." She said so quietly that she wasn't sure if Vaas even heard her. "I just might."

She jumped down from the railing and started walking to her room. When she was a good twenty metres away, she made the mistake of looking over her shoulder. Vaas had a cocky half smirk on his lips and when their eyes met he winked at her. Her heart picked up the pace just the tiniest bit, enough scare her. Vaas was the last person she should be attracted to.

**_x_**

Scarlett woke with a massive headache. With a groan she covered her eyes and turned to her side. It was about an hour until she finally decided to get up. Thankfully she had some water in her water bottle. She quickly drowned it and sighed. She looked down at her clothes, they were dirty and sweaty and she was so sick of sleeping in jeans. She thought of it pointless to change them now, she would dirty the clean ones before she can get to the waterfall anyway.

She pulled on her boots, brushed through her greasy hair and pulled it up into a bun. It was better than having it clinging to her face and neck. Right when she got her hair tied there was a knock on the door.

"Yes?" She asked, sliding her hand under her pillow where the knife was.

The door opened and in came a pirate she had seen around the camp a few times. He was, according to Kip, just a foot soldier so I was unlikely to befriend him. "Hello. Vaas says you leave camp, when privateers leave. Two or three hours." The man had a very thick accent.

Scarlett nodded. "Yes, alright."

The man gave her a nod and exited the room. Scarlett lifted the lid off of the box that held all of her belongings. She grabbed out a canvas bag and put shampoo, a towel and some clean clothes into it. When her bag was ready, she headed to Turkey Point. It was almost noon, which meant that she was the only one eating. Also, since breakfast time had passed she only got a few pieces of bread. It wasn't long when a group of five privateers walked through the camp, heading toward the area where they kept the hostages. She recognized one of them, he was the man who had been in the helicopter with her and Hoyt the day she arrived.

_Hector, was it?_ She wondered and kept chewing on her bread. It was only an hour later when the privateers came back with three hostages that Hector saw her. Hectors face when he saw her was the most surprising thing of all. It was a look of complete and utter shock and surprise, as if she was the last person he had expected to see there. Scar's eyebrows pulled together and it made her worry.

Her worry for the moment was short lived, because a very pissed of looking Vaas sat down opposite of her.

Scar eyes her warily. "Morning."

Vaas nodded at her and clearly wasn't bothered with pleasantries. "Ready to go?"

Scar nodded. "Yes, I just need to get a bag."

"You have five minutes, meet me at the trucks."

In about ten minutes the duo was out of the camp and headed down a jungle road. This was the first time Scarlett had been really in the jungle since the day she arrived. So with a deep breath in, she leaned back, fixed the sunglasses on her nose and looked at the sky. A faint smile was present on her lips.

"Why are you smiling?" Vaas' voice broke the silence over the car engine and chirping birds.

Scarlett's smile widened. "Because it's so beautiful."

Vaas let out a humourless chuckle. "It's only beautiful because you don't have to survive in it."

Scar turned to look at him, expecting him to continue speaking.

When Vaas was met with silence, he quickly glanced over to Scar. He skilfully nicked the sunglasses off of her face and slid them on. "The jungle will eat you up alive... You white people come here, you want to live. You want to be _free_. They never last long." He let out another humourless chuckle. He seemed so at ease driving, barely paying attention to the path but not once going off of it. "You come here. You will forget your life before. Soon you forget your fucking name. The jungle strips you of your humanity... You become an animal." He said quietly. "The jungle changes you."

Before Scar could reply, Vaas pulled the truck to a stop and got out. He lit up a cigarette as Scarlett followed him out, and then he hopped onto the hood of the car. When Scarlett was just standing there staring at him, the man spoke up.

"What are you waiting for?" He wondered and peeked over the top of Scarlett's sunglasses.

She wasn't sure, to be completely honest. Scarlett turned to look at the waterfall, it took her breath away. From high above, massive amounts of water were gushing down into a pool. Everything around it seemed so green and fresh and alive. She had taken about five steps toward it when Vaas shouted out to her.

"Oi, a propósito. If you see an alligator, shout for me."

Scar's eyebrows pulled together in confusion. It would have been nice to know about the fact that there were alligators here before she agreed to come. "Wouldn't that just attract their attention?"

"Yes," Vaas sighed, sounding like he was trying to explain physics to a three year old. "But that would also attract my fucking attention." He took in a drag from the cigarette. "That shit will keep you alive."

She raised an eyebrow in disbelief as her hands landed on her hips. "You're going to fight an alligator? Bare handed? For me?"

Vaas merely shrugged and kept smoking his cigarette.

Shaking her head, Scar walked down to the waterfall. She eyed the water for a moment, trying to see if there was anything alive in it. When it seemed safe, she stripped off her shirt. Scar was painfully aware of the fact that Vaas' eyes were most likely on her. Then, with a sigh of relief, she took off her jeans for the first time in days. However, she wasn't going to give the scarred man on the hood of the truck the complete satisfaction of seeing her naked so she headed to the water in her underwear, only taking them off in the water. She washed her hair three times, just to make sure that all of the grease and dirt was out of it, and for a while she just enjoyed the cool water.

Scar chose the moment when Vaas was occupied with the stereo to get to her towel. She quickly dried herself, put on clean clothes and wrapped the towel around her head. After making sure she had all of her things, she headed back to the truck.

"Ready?" Vaas questioned. "Still got your toes? And limbs?"

Scarlett nodded. "I do believe I do."

It seemed like a much shorter trip back to the camp, which in a way was sad because she quite enjoyed the freshness of the jungle. During the ride she took the towel away from her hair and let the wind dry it. It was going to no doubt knot her hair and it would be hell trying to get them out, but at this point she really didn't care.

Vaas pulled the truck to a stop and killed the engine. "By the way, nice tattoo."

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><p><strong>AN: Ahh, so much flirty Vaas.**

**Anyways, as per usual. Any and all criticism and ideas and thoughts are welcome.**

**If you wish to keep reading, adding it to favourites and alerts helps.**

**Reviews are better than Carlos' sex hair. (This point can and will be argued.)**

**Adiós amigos.**

**-Max**


	5. Chapter 5

****Disclaimer: I do not own anything in my stories except for the _fan_ fiction (including plots, OC's and so on). All the characters belong to the rightful owners. Any songs/poems/etc in my stories do _not_ belong to me unless stated otherwise.****

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><p><strong>AN: Again, shorter than I would like. I'm not even going to make any excuses of why this is late.**

**On the very bottom, I have translated a few things that come up in the story. Or that have come up and what will come up again.**

**This one is sort of a trippy clusterfuck. Not going to lie.**

**Have at it.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

"**If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does." **

_Vaas walked into the kitchen, grocery bag in hand, quiet singing ringing through the air. It seemed far away, like when the volume of a television was turned down in the room next to you and you couldn't make out the words through the wall, but he knew that it came from her. He was dressed casually in a pair of jeans, a tight flannel shirt and a leather jacket. On his feet were his combat boots, in which he seemed to live._

"_They didn't have the candy you wanted, so I bought chocolate instead. Is that alright, mina?" He looked up from the grocery bag and his eyes landed on the woman, whose back was facing him._

"_Yeah, that's alright." She turned to smile at him over her shoulder. Even though she spoke to him, he still heard her sing at the same time, or maybe he just imagined her singing. He wasn't sure._

_Vaas tugged off his leather jacket and layed it onto a chair, the woman turned around and tilted her head slightly. Her eyes were roaming all over him. "What?" asked Vaas and looked down to check whether he had something on his shirt._

"_God, I love your arms." The woman sighed and smiled at him. Vaas chuckled and walked over to her, heavy footsteps echoed through the room. With each step Vaas saw an alligator appear, one on the kitchen counter, another on the table and so on. He wrapped his arms around the womans waist and paid no mind to the animals._

_Vaas softly placed his lips onto her cheek, at the same time inhaling her scent. He didn't know how to describe it other than soft vanilla, soap and something that was just purely her._

"_Mina, I-" He wanted to say the rest of the sentence. He wanted to say the one tiny word, but he couldn't do it. He felt it, but he could never say the words. They were stuck in his throat with little sharp scalpel edges that would tear him to pieces if he uttered them. She terrified him._

"_I know," she whispered back. He felt her heart beating against his chest. He leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes._

"_So much." Their lips were almost touching and he craved hers._

Vaas opened his eyes. His mouth felt dirty and dry, like he had been eating sand the night before. He rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hands, wondering about the way his heart swelled inside his chest. He felt... weird. An odd feeling was infested inside of him, lingering at the deepest depths of his chest. His mind was blank and he didn't remember any dreams, but there was that feeling.

He rolled over and reached for the bottle of rum on the side of the bed. An all too familiar ache went though his body when he stretched out. It was the aftermath of hours of working, every fucking day and then consuming a healthy amount of alcohol after and during it. Seven days a week, year after year. To be completely honest, he barely even acknowledged it anymore.

The rum Vaas had was shit. It hadn't aged, so it tasted like muddy water that had been poured out of a boot with just a hint of sugary flavour to it. The bottle had been standing next to his bed for God knows how long, weeks maybe. It did nothing to help the taste in his mouth, so he took another big swig. Then the pirate closed his eyes and layed back down. It wasn't even morning yet and the moon was high up in the sky, only crickets serenading to it.

Vaas had taken two breaths before the sound of a gunshot reached his ears. The taste in his mouth forgotten, he was rushing out of the room with all of his guns on him in a matter of seconds. By the time he had pulled his ACE assault rifle from his back, the alarm was blasting out and men were scrambling out of buildings. The Rakyat were storming the camp, coming out of the woods behind where they kept the hostages.

Vaas kept his finger on the trigger, while strings of swears and insults were rolling off of his tongue as fast as the bullets were flying out of his gun. His only interest was killing every Rakyat motherfucker in sight.

Twenty minutes, it took only twenty minutes for Vaas and the pirates to kill every man possible. The pirates who were injured were escorted into a building with Monroe tending to them. Vaas watched as the rest of his men were dragging the bodies of the dead Rakyat to one pile, at the same ridding the bodies of weapons and anything useful.

"It makes no sense, güey" Carlos said in Spanish. "Thirty men in total, give or take." He shook his head. "Citra doesn't even send that little men for a small outpost."

Vaas had a lit cigarette on his lips, "No." He slowly shook his head and blew out smoke. "She's not stupid, she's after something."

"The hostages?" Carlos suggested, his eyes turning to the cages where they held them. He noticed that some of them were open and the people had escaped. "Fuck! This could have been just a distraction to set the hostages loose and then storm the place."

Vaas shook his head. "Not her style. It's all into battle or none." He ran a hand through his mohawk. "Every motherfucker into the forest! Find the fucking hostages! _Now_!" Vaas shouted and the men started running. He took another drag from his cigarette. "Carlos, make sure they find the fuckers. Then bring them to the gallows."

Vaas turned to go back to his house. He slung the ACE over his shoulder and spat. When he got to his room, he took another swig of rum and then went to brush his teeth. When his mouth was feeling minty fresh, he lit up a new cigarette and grabbed the bottle of rum.

The sun was rising over the top of the trees when Vaas was sitting in front of the gallows, with Maccie loyally by his side. He had gotten himself a nice plastic chair and another bottle of rum. He had just had a long briefing session with Kidd and Monroe, not to mention the measly three hours of sleep earlier, made him easily irritable and volatile. The King sat there and waited, the hostages started appearing in front of him one by one. He commanded them to be tied up like pigs.

He heard a whistle but paid no attention to it, only when Kidd was next to him he lifted his chin in the slightest toward the old man.

"Have you seen Scar?" Kidd questioned sounding awfully worried.

Vaas shook his head. "Not since last night," The corner of his mouth pulled up in the slightest.

_Three soft knocks on his door alerted him. His jaw locked and he was ready to shoot whoever the fuck it was. He had had an extremely tiring day, this had been the first time he had sat down since he took Scarlett to the waterfall. Vaas had just taken off his boots and shirt and was in the process of removing his belt and harness._

"_What?" He yelled._

"_It's Scar." Her voice barely sounded through the door and Vaas froze, a small smile starting to play on his lips. All of the anger slowly flowing away._

"_Come in." Vaas shouted, just loud enough for her to hear, and the door opened. Vaas turned around busying himself with unclipping the harness._

_There was a pull between the two that neither of them wanted to admit, but nevertheless was there. Scar completely ignored it and pushed it out of her thoughts, burying it in the corners of her mind, while Vaas passed it off as curiosity. Vaas had never seen a warrior woman quite like her. He had seen many warrior women, his mother was one, as well as his sister and he grew up among them. Scar however, didn't look like a killer. She looked innocent with a wide smile and a twinkle in her eye, but Vaas knew there was much much more to her. He had seen bits and pieces, the night Felipe attacked her and also the night before when Vaas himself shamelessly flirted with her._

_Scar had been silent for a few moments, taken off guard by the fact that there was a half naked man infront of her, who she had to admit was incredibly attractive._

Only physically, only physically._ She tried to convince herself._

"_Are you just going to stand there?" Vaas asked, looking over his shoulder._

_Scar snapped out of it and her cheeks flushed just in the slightest. "Um, I uh."_

"_Are you here to... to... echar un polvo ?"_

_Scars eyebrows lifted. "What?"_

"_To fuck."_

"_No!"_

"_Then what the hell are you doing here at one in the fucking morning?" His eyes roamed over her as he undid his belt. "You have no fucking alcohol, meaning you can't possibly be here to enjoy my wonderful fucking company, eh?" He tossed the belt onto his bed and ran his hand through his mohawk._

_Rolling her eyes she folded her arms across her chest. "I came to borrow a t-shirt."_

"_¿Qué?"_

"_You know, t-shirt. The red thing that is currently missing from your torso." She lazily pointed toward his chest with her hand. "Also you know they make those with sleeves right?" She couldn't help but seize the opportunity to poke a little bit of fun, Vaas seemed to be in a good enough mood._

_Vaas let out a laugh and she felt herself relax, she still wasn't exactly sure when she could joke around him and when she couldn't._

"_Seguro, you can have a shirt. ¿Por qué?" Vaas wondered as he walked to a large wardrobe in the corner of the room and pulled out a red shirt from a drawer._

"_Honestly? I'm tired of sleeping in jeans and none of my shirts are long and loose." She shrugged. I would have asked Gareth, but he's not here so. You were option two."_

_Vaas tossed the shirt to her. "Anything else?" He asked with a wink._

_With a smile and a shake of her head, she said "I'm think I'm alright, thanks." Scar folded the shirt neatly and turned round. She stopped at the door and looked back at him over her shoulder. "Thanks for the shirt."_

"_Sí."_

"Last- What do you mean last night?" Kidd questioned but then shook his head. "Fuck it. There is no time for this, I have to find her."

"Where's the fire, hermano?"

"She's missing, Vaas. No one has seen her since the Rakyat attacked. I thought that maybe she might be with you but..." The bear-of-a-man was nervous, his hands were trembling and he was pacing.

"You think Citra took her." It wasn't a question. Vaas blew out another puff of smoke as his blood started to boil.

**_x_**

Scarlett's hands were tied above her head again, she could only tell because she felt her arms against the sides of her head. After coming back to consciousness she tried to keep her breathing slow and even, as if she were still out cold. She couldn't feel her arms or legs. The last time she was tied up it ended bad for everyone, but this time she wasn't in pain the same way she was then. There was no drunken murmur around her nor anyones hands on her.

She heard footsteps coming toward her and distant chatter.

"I know you are awake," a heavily accented womans voice sounded. Scar recognized the accent to be Rakyat.

Scar opened her eyes and rolled her head back. The woman in front of her was beautiful. Long dreadlocks reached the small of her back and the sides of her head were shaved. She was clad in a leather skirt and a matching top, both embezzled with jewellery. On both of her wrists she wore a ton of bracelets. There were also tattoos, on her chin, on her left bicep, on her left side trickling down to her knee. The native had big green eyes and a perfectly oval face.

Scarlett registered that the two of them were in a small room. The walls were made out of large stones with green substance, most likely moss, growing on them. Pillars were embedded to the corners of the room and as Scar looked up she saw that the ceiling was very high. Vines were hanging from the ceiling down the walls. Straight behind Citra was a stone doorway, on both sides of the doorway were statues with firepits in front of them. Scarletts legs were sprawled out in front of her and she realized she was leaning against a cold wall.

"Who are you? Why am I here?" Scars voice was hoarse and weak.

The woman raised her delicate eyebrows. "You know not who I am?" She seemed surprised.

Scar tried to shake her head, but at least her voice was coming back. "No."

"I am surprised my brother has not spoke of me. I am Citra." She carried an air of authority around her.

"Your brother?"

The woman smiled just in the slightest, but it was not a friendly smile. It was a smile one would give when patronizing a child. "You really know nothing, do you?"

Scarlett was tied up with no sensation in her body, she doubted that anyone was going to be rescuing her and death seemed fairly close. So naturally, she chose this time to be cheeky. "Well I know the formula of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, the first twenty digits of the square root of pie and several metaphysical theories of the philosophical kind, but I doubt that's what you were after."

"I can see why Vaas has let you live this long, you entertain him."

The air of authority and the mohawk-esqe hair made sense now. "You are Vaas' sister." Scar remarked, more to herself than anyone else. With any luck, Vaas' sister was going to be just as batshit crazy as him.

Citra smiled. "Yes." The beautiful woman walked closer to Scarlett and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"You never answered my question, why am I here?"

"I wanted to meet you." Citra said. "Is it strange that I want to meet my brothers new girlfriend?"

Scarlett's mouth fell slightly open. "I am not!"

"Why else would you be wearing his shirt?"

_A loud band woke Scarlett and she immediately recognised it as gunfire. She quickly scrambled out of bed, pulled her jeans on and ran out the building. All of the pirates were armed and shooting at tattooed men who seemed to be coming in from the forest- She scanned the rooftops and her eyes landed on a dead sniper. She quickly ran to the building, climbed the ladder on the side of it and took a hold of the gun. The man who was there was an awful sight. He bad been shot both in the chest and the head._

_Scarlett turned her head away and opted to breathe through her mouth. She layed onto her stomach, lining the scope with her eye. She lined the gun up with a person and pulled the trigger, then she repeated the same action five times. Just after the moment that she pulled the trigger, she noticed a man running toward Smiley from behind. Scarlett quickly lined up the sniper and took a shot, just as Smiley had turned around to face the attacker._

_In a moment of confusion Smiley looked around, eventually when his eyes settled onto Scarlett a wide grin stretched across his face. Not his usual disturbing grin, but one which was full of gratitude. Scarlett gave him a quick wave and Smiley was off to battle again._

"I borrowed it from him." Scarlett said matter-of-factly.

"Please, do not take me for an idiot." Citra shook her head in disappointment. "You wouldn't survive in Vaas' camp unless you were under his protection and the only way you'd be under his protection is if you are involved with him."

"Are you going to kill me?"

"You ask a lot of questions." Citra noted.

"Well you have put me in a position where I must." Scar retorted.

Citra nodded slightly. "It seems I have. And no, I will not kill you yet, but you will die."

"Why is that?"

"I want you to know what Vaas is really like. I want you to see him for the monster that he is." Fury was laced in her voice as she faced in front of Scarlett. "Also, I want to know more about you, get to know pretty white girl. I want to know why do you love him."

Scarlett shook her head and remembered a quote. "We make our own monsters, then fear them for what they show us about ourselves."

Citra slapped Scar with the back of her hand. "Know your place. You know nothing."

The biting pain in her cheek made her unable to speak for a moment, actually the surprise of the slap did and not so much the pain. "No, I don't. Only because nobody has agreed to tell me."

"Once, long ago." Citra began. "There was a lotus pond filled with clean water. The bank composed of smooth sand and the smell" Citra breathed in and closed her eyes, as if she was actually smelling it, "of blossoms moved the air. But a giant," she threw up her arms for emphasis. "lived beneath the pond's surface, devouring any who came to its edge. A warrior, from the northern kingdoms, heard of the giant and vowed to slay him." Her fingers trailed the tattoos on her body. "He painted tatau on his body and took power from the land of the dead. When he was ready, he walked the path to the lotus pond. And the giant rose from still waters, the Warrior raised his dagger. He cut the giant's head clean off its body. The skull of the giant fell to Earth and became our island..." She motioned around her and then placed both of her hands on her chest. "The descendants of the Warrior became the Rakyat, our people."

"Now a new giant has risen. Hoyt Volker lured my brother away with money and drugs. Power. Vaas left the tribe, his birth right. He became a monster." Citra said with anger. "Vaas was supposed to be the perfect warrior, but he did not walk to the end of his path. He didn't achieve his destiny." Citra shook her head. "And now he cannot return."

Citra turned her eyes onto Scarlett and then shouted something in the native language. A heavily tattooed man walked in and in his hands was a small tray. When the man placed the tray next to Scarletts legs she saw that a single syringe was on it.

"What is that?"

"Something to help you talk. You do not seem to like to share things," Citra kneeled and picked up the syringe. "It will open the darkest pits of your mind."

Citra injected the liquid into Scarletts neck and then left the room. As she walked away Scars vision started blurring and her ears were ringing.

Her hands came loose and fell into her lap with a thump. She got up and followed Citra.

"You know the necklace Vaas has? The green one, carved out of mountain jade." Citras voice asked, but she was nowhere in sight. Instead, Scarlett was walking down the path into Vaas' camp. "It was our mothers originally. Then she gave it to me to give to whom I will. I gave it to my brother." The jungle around her was on fire and there were human heads just above ground, all of them dead. Some had visible wounds, some not. "It used to be in the shape of a twist. The single twist represents the joining together of two people."

On the path infront of her were Scarletts mother and father. It was when Scarlett was small because they were both so young. Scarlett remembered this vaguely. Scarletts father looked sharp in a black tailored suit, with his hair gelled and set. Her mother held her stomach with her left hand and the other was on her fathers cheek. Scarlett looked at them both with wide eyes, this was just before they were killed. Scarlett ran toward her mother, panicking.

_Scarlett. _Her mother said, but her mouth didn't move. _Come say bye to daddy, he'll be gone for a couple of days._

_Dad. _Scarlett said automatically.

_Do not worry, Letty. I will be back, but until then you have to help mummy with the baby. Alright? _Her father smiled and his brown eyes lit up with joy.

Scarlett tried to scream but no sound came out of her. Both of her parents vanished into thin air and when she looked down she saw their dead bodies both surrounded by blood. Her mother was couched over, hands on her stomach. Her father stared emptily and all joy had gone out of his eyes.

"Even though sometimes people move away, their journey of life will have their paths cross again. The single figure eight represents the path of life, it is the eternity symbol." Citras voice sounded again and Scarlett saw Gareth. He was younger too, his eyes bloodshot as he extended his hand out to Scarlett.

"The necklace broke when he left. I know not if he broke it or it broke itself."

Vaas' hysterical laugher came from next to her, she looked left and right but there was no one there. She turned her eyes forward again and there stood Vaas. Citra came up behind him, wrapping her slender arms around his torso. The native woman then locked eyes with Scarlett and a fire burned in them. Citra turned her head slightly, while keeping her eyes locked with Scarlett, and said something to Vaas in a language Scarlett didn't understand. Vaas looked different, he was clad in clothes made out of leather. The wound on his head was fresh, with blood still trickling down his eyebrow.

"Vaas murdered my father. Vaas deserted his people. He is a traitor of the worst kind and I will kill him one day." Citras voice was all around her, but it wasn't the same Citra who stood with Vaas. Scarlett was now walking down a stone road, though she was still in Vaas' camp. A warm light made Citra glow gold.

Goosebumps rose on the back of Scarletts neck, raising small hairs. Vaas charged toward her with a big, beautifully carved, knife in his hand. Just before Vaas reached her, he vanished.

"Why are you with him? What do you see in him?" Citra questioned and Scarlett walked forward. She tried to answer, but no voice left her.

_Do not worry, Letty. I will come back._ Her fathers assuring voice rang in her ears and he appeared infront of her. His eyes staring into hers and tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Why?" Citra demanded and a veil of fire blazed up infont of Scarlett, leaving her father behind it.

"I am not with him!" Scarlett shouted. It felt like a dam broke inside of her, words were flying out of her mouth faster than she could understand what she was saying. She only stopped a while later when she noticed commotion around her. Vaas' pirates were shooting Rakyat soldiers.

"Hola, bitchachos!" Vaas shouted. The shooting stopped and all of them men dissolved into ash, leaving the ground coated with red powder.

"Vaas, why are you in my temple?" Citras voice echoed.

Scarlett tried to scream but the dam had closed and no sound came out of her. Her heart started racing and she could feel the blood pumping through her veins. Her breathing was erratic because she could feel Vaas and Citra somewhere close to her, but fire had surrounded her. The heat was burning her skin and she couldn't see.

"Because fuck you, that's why!" Vaas laughed.

Scarlett tried to shout his name, she tried to shout for help but the more she tried the higher the flames grew and the hotter they got.

"Where is she?"

"Who?" Citra questioned and the flames started backing away from Scarlett.

"Please do not waste my fucking time. Okay, bitch? Give her to me or I will have two-hundred and thirty-fucking-seven men storm this temple right fucking now. All they are waiting for is my command. My fucking say so. So where is she?"

Scarlett fell onto her knees coughing, even though the fire had retreated the smoke from it was filling her lungs.

"You would not do it."

"Wouldn't I?"

"You must really love her."

"Where. The fuck. Is she?"

It felt like a cold bucket of ice was dumped onto her and she cried out. She felt someone touch her, or rather pick her up but she was still suffocating on the ground.

"Vaas..." Scar tried to shout. "Gareth!" No response. "Father!"

"Jesus motherfucking Christ, you drugged her? Is that any way to treat a fucking guest, Citra?" Vaas' voice echoed. Scarletts blood felt cold and she couldn't stop coughing. "I would kill you but my hands are full. Don't try to kill us on the way, it won't fucking work."

The sound of a car engine was close by and Scarlett tried to get up and run. She managed to get up but the circle of fire was drawing closer again. She tried to see if there was any gap in the fire, but there wasn't.

"He is a traitor. Dia adalah seorang pembunuh." Citras voice echoed around Scarlett. "No one man should have all that power."

The fire was slowly drawing closer. Smoke filled up inside the circle and Scarlett turned her eyes toward the sky. She saw a Giant rise from the borders of the fire. It was the same Giant, the same Ink Monster that became the island. Tall and black was it's figure, with a red mask of a face and fiery yellow eyes.

"Don't go anywhere," Vaas chuckled. "I'll find something that will help. I'll check for fucking tigers before I go."

The Giant opened his mouth and exhaled a massive blueish-purple flame from its mouth, drowning Scarlett in it. Everything went dark and her breathing was wheezing, trying to get enough oxygen to keep her alive. She felt her body twitching and hitting a cold hard surface. Pain radiated from everywhere and the heat from the circle of flames, now drowned and mixed with the Giants flame, licked her skin. She screamed on top of her lungs and her body shook and tears rolled down her cheeks. She felt like she was being burned alive.

"Arotahi i runga i toku reo. Arotahi, wahine taitamariki."

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><p><strong>AN: Aye, so. Translation things. Also these are probably not correct because I used Google Translator to do this, but I needed the dramatic flare so sue me.**

**AND! Correct me if I'm wrong. No seriously. Do.**

**_Güey._ (Sometimes spelled "Guey", usually pronounced as "Way") - Basically means "Bro" or "Dude". [Mexican Spanish slang]**

**_Mujer._ - Woman. [Spanish]**

**_Mina._ - Woman (Straight translation: Mine). [Argentinian Spanish... slang?]**

**_Seguro._ - Sure [Spanish]**

**_Dia adalah seorang pembunuh._ - He is (was?) a murderer. [Indonesian]**

**_Arotahi i runga i toku reo. Arotahi, wahine taitamariki._ - Focus on my voice. Focus, young woman. [Maori]**

**I think that was it? Maybe. If there is anything else, then let me know. I'm sure I missed some.**

**This isn't actually a translation, but since I fell in love with this phase (blame, AC:IV), I can't remember if it was in this one of the one before, but it _will_ come up again.**

**_Cock of the walk_ - Big man in town, the greatest.**

**As per usual, review, alert... post it to tumblr? Twitter? Whatever floats your boat.**

**Oh, I almost forgot since this has become a habit...**

**Reviews are better than Citra drugging you.**

**Adiós amigos.**

**-Max**


	6. Chapter 6

****Disclaimer: I do not own anything in my stories except for the _fan_ fiction (including plots, OC's and so on). All the characters belong to the rightful owners. Any songs/poems/etc in my stories do _not_ belong to me unless stated otherwise.****

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><p><strong>AN: Hello again.**

**It has been a bit longer than I would like, but that's okay.**

**Now this chapter is getting closer to the length that I fancy.**

**Translations are on the bottom, and there will be a few other important-ish notes.**

**Get cracking.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 6<strong>

**She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).**

With a heavy sigh Vaas stepped out of the jeep and slammed the door closed, his eyes scanning the forest. This was the last place Vaas wanted to be. Hidden between the trees was the entrance to a Rakyat temple. His home, or at least the place he grew up.

Vaas pulled a small bag of white powder out of his pocket, took some of the substance onto the tip of his blade and snorted it. What he was about to do was idiotic, extremely idiotic.

"We d_on't have enough ammo to storm the place, we cant risk open war. So I'll go alone. Alright?" Kidd suggested._

_Vaas shook his head, whatever plan the old man had in mind it wouldn't work. "You will be dead before you reach the fucking stairs." _

_Kidd was nervous and furious. "Then what the hell do you suggest? We can't leave her there!"_

_Vaas said nothing._

_This only fuelled Kidd's anger. "We are not fucking leaving her, Vaas! Scarlett is family, the only family I have."_

_Vaas laughed and shook his head. "You are angry Kidd. You, are angry. I get that. I get it." Vaas took a big swig from a whisky bottle. "I mean without family who the fuck are we? There was a time when I would do anything for my sister." Another swig. "You see the thing about our loved ones, right, out fucking loved ones. They come and they blindside you every fucking time."_

_Kidd resisted the urge to roll his eyes, he was getting impatient with his boss. "Vaas, we have to go get her! Plus I think Hoyt might not be very happy to hear of her death."_

_Vaas cocked his head to the side a bit._

"_Think about it." Kidd continued. "Scar must have paid him a shit-ton of money to hide here. Hoyt knows that Scar makes real fucking high profile kills, so she might need to hide again. You wouldn't want to rob Hoyt from that possible amount of money and risk angering him, am I right?" It was far fetched, Kidd knew, but it seemed to work._

_With a heavy sigh, Vaas spoke. "I have to go."_

"_I'm coming with you."_

"_No." Vaas shook his head. "Citra will take it as an act of war, I have to go alone."_

As he walked toward the temple, two men standing guard pointed their guns at him. Vaas held up his hand, showing a grenade in it and shook his head.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Vaas spoke in the native language.

He had no problem with speaking it usually. The only person he absolutely refused to speak it to was Citra. Usually that wasn't much of a problem because he perhaps saw her once a year, if even that.

"Hola, bitchachos!" Vaas shouted as he casually strolled into the temple.

He hated this place more than anything. He knew every corner, every rock and every piece of dirt in here. Memories flooded his mind as he looked around.

"Vaas, why are you in my temple?" Citra shouted, coming out into the main courtyard. The Rakyat men, now noticing him all pulled their guns up, pointing them at him.

"Because fuck you, that's why!" Vaas laughed, shaking his head. "Where is she?"

"Who?" Citra questioned, tilting her head to the side.

Vaas sighed. "Please do not waste my fucking time. Okay, bitch? Give her to me or I will have two-hundred and thirty-fucking-seven men storm this temple right fucking now." He grabbed his walkie-talkie from his belt. "All they are waiting for is my command. My fucking say so. So where is she?" This, of course, was a lie. However Vaas knew that Citra wouldn't risk an attack on the temple.

"You would not do it." Citra said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Wouldn't I?" Vaas smiled. Citra had never been good at calling his bluffs.

A moment later Citra motioned her men to lower their guns. "You must really love her."

Vaas' eyebrows shot up just a little bit and then he realized, _that's_ why she had taken Scarlett. Citra never liked when Vaas had girlfriends, or any sort of crushes. Vaas's smile grew. "Where. The Fuck. Is she?"

Citra turned around and walked away, Vaas followed her. Citra held Scarlett in one of the small rooms not far from the entrance of the temple. Before Vaas stepped through the doorway, he heard Scar murmur, "Vaas...Gareth. Father."

Scarlett was sitting on the ground, her arms tied above her head. She was dirty and bloody, the stitches on her chest had opened, he could tell because there was a little bit of blood seeping through the shirt. _His_ shirt.

_Fuck_, Vaas thought.

Scarlett was murmuring things, twitching and shaking. All the while hitting her head against the stone wall. "Jesus motherfucking Christ, you drugged her?" Vaas wasn't surprised, Citra had always liked to poison things. He walked over to her, took his knife out and sliced the rope holding her hands. "Is that any way to treat a fucking guest, Citra?" Her hands fell down lifelessly, Vaas caught her before her whole body fell onto the cold floor.

He picked her up and Scarlett knotted her hands in his shirt, the one _he_ was wearing, all the while muttering about a fire. He walked out of the room back out to the courtyard, before he made his exit he spoke. "I would kill you but my hands are full." Motioning to the shaking Scarlett in his arms. "Don't try to kill us on the way, it won't fucking work."

He strolled out of the temple, leaving behind a bunch of confused Rakyats, looking at Citra in disbelief. It was raining heavily, soaking both Vaas and Scarlett in a matter of moments. Vaas put Scarlett into the passenger seat and then got in himself, when he turned the key music started blasting out of the speakers. As he sped away from the temple, he bobbed his head along to the beat, he couldn't help but think that taking a roofless car had been a mistake. As they drove the wind picked up, violently throwing around the tops of the trees.

Scarlett screamed and Vaas glanced over. She was scratching at her face, her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, then she scratched her arms. "No, no, no, no, no." Her breathing was erratic.

Scarlett was dying.

Vaas lit up a cigarette, which got soaked by the rain immediately, as they drove along the shore. The sea was at turmoil, which worried Vaas in the slightest. Before they reached the river that flowed through Bad Town into the sea, the car started to give out grey smoke.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Vaas swore as the car pulled to a stop. "Fucking hell!" He pulled the key out if the ignition and got out of the car. He popped open the hood, on first look there was enough damage that he wouldn't be able to fix it right now. He didn't even have the necessary parts. He took his walkie-talkie, but there was no sound. Not even static. A radio tower nearby must've gotten damaged.

He stood there for a moment, weighing his options which there were several of. He could go to Bad Town and take shelter there, but there were more than a few people there who wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet into his head upon seeing him. Usually he didn't have a problem with that, but he had a dying girl with him, so going to Bad Town was out.

Vaas knew there was an outpost, Tequila Sunrise, near by, but not near enough. It was more likely that they would get killed, by the weather or by animals, before they reached it. So that was out.

There was a cave a little bit back down the road where they could take shelter, but as long as Vaas had known about it, it had always been infested with alligators. He had better things to worry about than getting eaten, so that was out.

Swearing, Vaas slammed the hood of the car back down. Scanning the trees, he remembered that there was an old army bunker there, dating back to World War II when the Japanese occupied the island. The bunker was closer than Tequila Sunrise, but still far. So far it seemed like the best option, so Vaas opted it was their best chance.

Working fast, he opened the trunk. He grabbed an old plastic bag, filled it up with the things they might need, including a knife, a few water bottles and of course alcohol, among others. He started walking with Scarlett over his shoulder and the plastic bag in hand.

About an hour later Vaas reached the bunker. His legs were burning and he was tired. The storm made being outside hell in itself, so constantly going up a hill was very tricky. He set Scarlett down next to the door, dropping the bag in her lap. He then pulled out his gun and went to check if any animal had decided to take shelter from the storm here.

When the place was empty, he carried Scarlett further inside. Laying her on the ground, he saw she was still trying to tear at her skin all the while muttering. He took a long drink from one of the bottles of rum and then set it back into the bag. He was so fucking tired.

"Don't go anywhere," Vaas said to Scarlett and then chuckled, realizing his pun. "I'll find something that will help." He stood up and started walking. Before he left the room he turned around, taken slightly off guard when he saw Scarlett looking at him. "I'll check for fucking tigers before I go."

Vaas walked out of the bunker back into the rain and thunder rumbled in the sky. He looked toward the direction of Tequila Sunrise and with a sigh he started walking in the opposite direction.

_x_

Scarlett gasped in a deep breath as her eyes flew open. She felt like she had been underwater and has just broken the surface. Her heart was drumming and her breathing turned erratic. She felt dizzy and nauseous. She felt like she couldn't get enough oxygen into her lungs.

"Marino, wahine taitamariki. Marino. Inumia." A voice, deep enough to shake the earth itself, was speaking to her. "Drink."

There was a wooden bowl placed into her hands and she quickly drowned the bitter liquid in it. She started coughing as she finished off the last of it. She looked up from the bowl.

The man infront of her had a wide nose and a strong jaw, covered with a neatly trimmed beard. His dark eyes were half closed, he almost looked bored, and sat under thick, mean looking brows. The set of his mouth and the look in his eyes gave away that he was wise beyond his years. His hair was in dreadlocks which reached his muscular shoulders. A red long strip of scarf-like fabric was wrapped around his head and his neck, finally falling on his shoulders. He wore no top, but a pair of leather shorts and a black wrap around his waist. He had a necklace with all sorts of different rocks on it, big silver earrings hung from his ears and he had many more pieces of jewellery around his wrists and biceps.

"You will live, wahine taitamariki." The mans voice was heavily accented and very deep, it sounded almost nonhuman.

It felt like her insides were burning and her body shook as the aftermath of drinking the liquid. She leaned back down to where she was laying before. Her body was on a cold stone floor, but her head hit something warmer and higher up from the ground. "What...?" Her throat hurt as she spoke, she turned her head slightly. She saw a smirking Vaas and realized her head was in his lap. "How... But..." She coughed. "Citra."

"You look like shit, white cookie." Vaas exclaimed.

Scar felt sick and sat up again, leaning her head between her knees. She felt like she was going to empty her insides.

"Koe e rongoa. Kikokiko me te wairua." The man said. "Lift up your head."

Scarlett did as she was told, she didn't know who this man was and why he was feeding her weird liquids but she didn't care. She wasn't tied up and Vaas' sister wasn't here, so her chances of living were better than before.

The man leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, by instinct she did the same. The man started saying something in a completely different language to which he had been speaking before.

"You will live," The man repeated his words. "It will get worse, before it gets better." He spoke slowly and carefully, making sure he pronounced the words as well as possible.

Scarlett nodded. "Your name?"

The man did not smile, but his eyes turned warm. "Dalle Wombe."

Scarlett gave him a small smile despite her nausea. "Scarlett Vincent. And thank you."

"Rest. Focus on reality, do not let the poison in you drag you deeper."

Scarletts heart-rate picked up again. "Poison?"

Dalle nodded his head. "I have done all I can. I must take my leave." The man stood up, he was taller and much more muscular than he had seemed when she was crouching down. He said a few last words to Vaas and handed him a bowl.

Scarlett felt like she was going to throw up again, her mouth was filling with saliva and her throat felt like it was clogging up. Her head was spinning. She took deep breaths through her mouth.

"You really do look like shit," Vaas said in a matter-of-fact voice.

Scarlett coughed. "Thanks..." She was going to continue but she broke out in a violent coughing fit. "What the fuck did she give me? What did _he_ give me?"

"Citra poisoned you." Vaas said and Scarlett squeezed her eyes shut.

Her body was shaking, as if it was trying to tear itself apart. That's when the pain began. Scarlett screamed, her hands flying to her throat. She felt like she couldn't breathe.

_I'm going to die_, Scarlett thought in panic, repeating the sentence over and over again.

"You're not going to die as long as you don't give into the poison." Vaas said, when she said nothing he grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around so she was facing him. He looked deep into her eyes before he spoke, "Scarlett, you will hallucinate. Citra's poison will tempt you, you must not fucking let go. Okay, hermana, I need you to focus on reality."

Cold sweat had covered her face, she was pale and shivering but she felt like she was on fire. "How?" It seemed to her like Vaas' eyes were glowing, brighter and brighter as she kept staring.

"Fight it." Vaas said.

When Vaas blinked his pupils changed into a cat-like shape. Scarletts mouth fell open just the slightest bit.

"Fuck me." She muttered in disbelief.

Her breathing quickened as did her heart rate. Shaking her head, she tried to avoid his eyes but she couldn't.

Everything turned black.

_x_

"Hey! Wake up." A familiar voice said. "Wake up, you fuck!"

Scarlett was cold again, shivering. Her head was elevated from the ground, like the first time she came about. She groaned as she opened her eyes.

"What the...?" She murmured, her hand going to her throbbing head. When she opened her eyes she could see blurry outlines of concrete walls, a stubbly jaw and on her right was... The stubbly jaw moved, distracting her, and Scarlett shifted her attention. Her hand immediately shot up and her fingertips touched the dark hairs.

Vaas grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand away from his face. Scarlett struggled with her hand as she tried to move her hand back, her fingers stretching toward his jaw, but Vaas' grip was strong enough that her hand didn't move at all.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Vaas demanded, and took a swig of something in a bottle.

Scarlett was quiet for a while, it took her a few moments to understand that he was indeed speaking to her. "You... You have blood in your beard."

"And?" Vaas asked, he was pretty sure that it was rare that he _didn't_ have blood in his beard. Or anywhere really.

"And it's fuzzy."

He swore in a language she didn't speak and leaned his head back against the wall. Vaas let go of her wrist, making her arm topple onto her chest.

"Vaas." Scarlett spoke. "Why is my head in your lap?" She paused. "I think I can hear colours." She poked his thigh with her index finger, feeling the amount of muscle underneath his jeans. "You have muscly legs."

Vaas grabbed her hand once more, with a sigh he spoke, "Your head is on my lap because you wouldn't stop hitting on the fucking floor. And I swear to the fucking Heavens if you poke me one more fucking time, I will cut off your motherfucking fingers." He paused, his mouth going into a hard line. "And _muscly_ is not a fucking word."

Scarlett frowned. "You're mean."

Vaas leaned his head back and let out a breath. "Tired." He took a long drink from a bottle.

A few minutes later Scarlett spoke again. "How do you do it? How do you live with the knowing that you've killed?" When Vaas didn't answer, she spoke again. "Do you ever feel remorse? Do you ever regret it?"

"A little hypocritical of you, no? You murder too, you should know."

"Yes, but the people I murder deserve it." She poked his thigh again, this time softer. "Your victims are innocent, for the most part. Tourists and stuff..."

"No." Vaas said.

"No what?"

He sighed. "No, I don't regret it. I don't feel bad."

Scar was looking at him but her eyes started unfocusing slowly. "Me neither. I mean, first two... three kills. Yeah then. But no... Perhaps because I have good outlets for all of that now." Her eyes focused again. "Your outlet seems to be more murder."

This woke curiosity in Vaas. "Outlets?"

Scarlett nodded and her mouth curled into a small smirk. "Yeah. Sex, for one." Vaas opened his mouth to speak, but Scar kept talking. "Sex is great. Given your partner is good, y'know?" She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Do you know what pisses me off?"

"What?" Vaas took the bait, amused.

"When people say sex is a sin and that it's dirty. Like... Go fuck yourself. Those people just haven't been fucked properly." She felt like she was spinning. "Excluding asexuals and the like, but y'know. Sex is great. And it's only dirty when it's done right. Am I right? Of course I'm right."

Vaas was incredibly amused at the woman's rant, true she was only ranting because Citra had poisoned her in an attempt to extract information and eventually kill her, but it was amusing none the less.

"I think we would have great sex." Scarlett said, opening her eyes.

"We?"

"Yes, we. You and I. Us." She dragged out the 's' in 'us'. "Jesus fucking Christ, you're not that big of an idiot."

Her insulting him woke anger in him and his lips pressed into a tight line, but the topic they were at was far more rewarding than shouting and swearing at her. At least that's what he told himself.

"Do you? You've thought about having sex with me, huh?" Vaas asked, his hands still balled into fists.

Scar trailed her nail on the bottom of Vaas' jawline. This time Vaas didn't move her hand away. "Not sex per se, but close. I know you have, otherwise you wouldn't be so fucking suggestive all the time. Anyway, I think we will have good sex."

"Will?" Vaas didn't even bother hiding his smirk.

"We'll end up having sex at one point or another." Scarlett nodded, her eyes were closed again. "I mean, half or your pirate buddies think were fucking already so... Have you ever raped anyone?"

"No." It was the truth, he hadn't.

"Yeah, we'll definitely fuck." She said, putting an end to the conversation.

Scarlett looked away from the Pirate King, her eyes finding something that she had not seen in a long time. Her mouth fell open, her hand reached out, but stopped millimetres before they would touch skin.

"Mum?"

The last time Scarlett had seen her mother in front of her was when she was five years old. A sob broke from her chest. Her mother was beautiful, with shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes. Scarlett was a spitting image of her mother. Vaas looked down at the sound of her crying and realized that Scarlett was hallucinating.

"Scarlett, what ever you see it's not real."

Scar shook her head. "No." She didn't want to believe it, her mother looked so real. She _had to_ be real.

"Remember what I said." Vaas spoke, but he sounded like he was far away. "Focus on reality."

Tears were rolling down her cheeks when her mother spoke. "It hurts darling, doesn't it." Her eyes were sad and Scarlett nodded vigorously. "Come with me and I will take the pain away."

Scarlett clamped her hand over her mouth, trying to hold in the sobs. She wasn't sure what hurt more, the pain from the poison and the antidote or the fact that her mother was there.

"You father will be happy to see you too." She spoke again, she sounded like an angel. Her voice clean and ringing through the air.

"Scarlett, talk to me."

Scarlett took a deep breath, her eyes still glued to her mother. "It's my mum." When she started talking, she felt like she couldn't stop. "Her name is Antonia Penelope. She's so beautiful and she sounds like an angel. I... I don't remember much about her, nor my dad. They died when I was five." She started to reach out for her but Vaas caught her hand.

"Don't give into the poison," Vaas said and Scarlett didn't give any indication that she had heard him, only her arm relaxed.

"She played piano, she was really good too. She was so kind and selfless, it's not a wonder my dad loved her. My God she is beautiful. I wish... I hate it that she wasn't there while I was growing up. I didn't have a mum, I only had Gareth."

Scarlett wanted to go to her mother so bad, Scar wanted to hug her and know what she smelled like. She wanted to know her favourite colour and her favourite song, she wanted to hear her play the piano again. She wanted to have a Christmas with her parents.

"I love her so much, even though she wasn't there." She paused. "Why can't I go with her?"

"You will die."

Scarletts lower lip trembled. Dying to be with her parents seemed a good option.

"Are you coming, darling?" Her mother asked her.

As more tears rolled down her cheeks, Scarlett slowly shook her head. "I have work to do, mum." She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away, she didn't open her eyes.

_She's not real, Scarlett. She's not real._ Her inner voice reminded her.

It was a while before she spoke to Vaas again, her eyes still closed."Citra said you killed your father."

"_Her_ father," Vaas said and the smell of cigarette smoke filled the air. "I killed _her_ father."

"Why?"

Vaas hesitated, he didn't want to open himself to her. Yet he was strangely tempted to do exactly that. Perhaps he was just _that_ tired. "She asked me to."

"But she said-"

"Yeah, Citra does that. She is a wolf dressed like a sheep." Vaas said and Scar wiped the last of her tears away.

"Did you know you father?"

Vaas shook his head. "No." He lit up another cigarette. "He was an Argentinian pirate, who ended up on the island for a couple of weeks. Him and mother fell in love. After he left mother found out she was pregnant and said it was from her fiancée, the leader of the Rakyat." He paused. "When I was fifteen, the leader of the Rakyat, the man who I believe to be my father found out. I didn't look like him anyway. Mother came to me and told the whole story. The leader killed mother, I wasn't in the camp when he did it. Then Citra convinced me to kill the leader... and I fucking did."

Scarlett kept staring at him, focusing on him as he spoke, because if she didn't she would start to focus on her hallucinations.

"The thing, about our loved ones is that they fucking blindside you any chance they fucking get. My sister is a crazy fucking bitch. If I had known that then my life would have been so much fucking easier." Vaas shook his head. "I will kill her, I will put a bullet into her pretty little head for all of the fucking shit she had done."

She never had siblings herself so sibling rivalry was fairly foreign to her. She was certain this this however was far beyond any basic sibling bickering. As Scarlett focused on her breathing, she couldn't help but wonder if this was all a dream. Perhaps she was knocked out during the Rakyat attack... Perhaps she was still in bed and there had been no attack at all. She wondered why she had come on this island. She would have been fine without the money, she just got greedy. It seemed too good to be true anyway, a half a million dollars for an easy job. It turned out to be the compete opposite. She had been cut, beaten, poisoned and tied up and she had close to none of the information she needed.

"Why don't you have any tattoos?" She blurted out. "The rest of the Rakyat do."

Vaas took a swig from a bottle. "I was going to have. The Rakyat start getting tataus after they make their first kill. For the boys there is a ceremony at fifteen, the girls can participate if they wish. After you come back to the camp, you get a tatau. Then you will get tataus based on age and achievements. I did the ritual, when we got back to the camp... This was after he killed mother, we got back to the camp and I was seen unfit to receive a tatau." Unconsciously Vaas' hand went to the jagged scar along his head, his fingertips trailing it back and forth.

"Is that how you got the scar?"

Vaas didn't say anything, instead he picked up the bowl from the ground. He gave Scarlett a little nudge with his knee, he took her arm and helped her sit up. "Drink."

"Again?"

"It will knock you out for a moment, but after that you should be back to normal. You might experience a bit of memory loss, nothing permanent."

Scarlett, with shaky hands, grabbed the bowl from his hand. She made the mistake of smelling it before she drank it, which made her want to throw up.

_One, Two... Three._ She counted in her head and gulped down the whole bowl. Having swallowed the last of it, she dropped the bowl and coughed violently. It was burning her way down into her stomach, much like alcohol but the burn was different. She felt her torso getting heavier and her breaths came in slower. She tried to form words but her lips felt glued shut.

Everything turned black... Again.

_x_

Shaking. That's what Scarlett felt.

A moment later she opened her eyes and a blurry figure was in front of her.

Shaking.

"What?" She spoke, or at least she thought she did.

Her mind was fuzzy and it hurt. It felt like she was waking up to a hangover. She tried to make her eyes focus but it didn't work. Taking deep breaths, she tried to remember.

Flashes of Citra and a temple came back. Then a room with concentrate walls... Vaas' stubby jaw. Confused, she tried to push her brain to remember more but she couldn't.

"What the hell?" She spoke, this time definitely out loud.

The shaking stopped.

"Can you remember anything?" The blurry shaped asked, Scar recognised the Spanish laced voice as Vaas'.

Slowly, her eyes focused. "I... I... There was a temple and Citra... your sister." She looked around. The room she remembered, with the concentrate walls, was the one she was in right now. "I... Where are we? What the hell is going on?"

"You'll remember everything in a couple of hours." Vaas stood up and Scarlett sat up against the wall, head in her hands. "Long story fucking short, Citra poisoned you. I rescued you. We got caught in a storm, you got an antidote."

None of it seemed it familiar. Scarlett's eyebrows pulled together. "Where are we?" Looking at the concentrate walls, it seemed like a bunker of some sort.

"A bunker built by the Japanese during World War II." Vaas said, grabbing a bottle from the floor and heading for the door.

"The Japanese?" Scarlett stood up, wavering slightly, but able to follow him. She was shivering slightly, she was cold and damp clothes clung to her skin. "I honestly know nothing of this place do I?"

Vaas was leaning against a doorway, looking at the rain. He shrugged, but said nothing.

"How long are we going to be here and wha-"

"Jesus! Hermana!" Vaas spoke, his voice louder than when he normally spoke. "You ask a lot of motherfucking questions. Please, shut the fuck up."

"I just-"

"No." Vaas looked over his shoulder. "Shut up. Listen to me, okay? Hmm?" He turned around and took a swig of whatever he was drinking. "The clouds are thinning, the storm should calm down soon. We'll be able to make to Tequila Sunrise by then."

"Te-" Scarlett was cut off.

"An outpost." Vaas said, slowly walking toward her. Scarlett only now, in better light, noticed the tired stance his shoulders had and the dark circles under his eyes. His eyes roamed her up and down, and mouth circled into a smirk slowly, and Scarlett recognised that as a sign that his mood had done a 180. "You might want to get out of those wet clothes." Vaas said, "Don't want you to catch a fucking cold, do we?"

Scarlett rolled her eyes while turning her head to the side, at the same shaking her head in disbelief. She folded her arms, the goosebumps on them giving away how cold she really was. Vaas' eyes travelled from her eyes to the hollow behind her ear, briefly wondering if that was her sweet spot, then down her neckline. Scarlett was in fact a remarkably beautiful woman. Vaas' eyes snapped back to hers when she spoke.

"Stop trying to intimidate me." She hissed, holding her chin high while she tried not to squirm under the intensity of his gaze.

"But I get such enjoyment out of it." He stepped closer, trapping her against the wall. She could feel the heat of his body in their close proximity, but she refused to break eye contact.

"I wish you'd stop."

"Why?" He breathed, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"I don't like it." Scar said, in a rather matter-of-fact voice, trying to sound convincing. Her breathing becoming heavier and heavier.

The corner of Vaas' mouth pulled up in a crooked grin, his eyes burning. "Liar." Vaas knew that she didn't remember the things that had come out of her mouth not long ago, but she would. She would also remember this. The tip of his tongue darted out and wet his lower lip. "Voy a hacerte gritar, cariño."

She narrowed her eyes slightly and swallowed. "What does that mean?"

"It means I will make you scream, mina."

The static from a walkie-talkie broke the moment between them. When Vaas turned from her she let out a sigh of relief, however there was a part of her, a part which she refused to acknowledge, craved the heat from his body.

_It's just because you're freezing your ass off._ She tried to convince herself. _It it's just that._

It turned out that the storm had indeed knocked out one of the radio towers, but as soon as it was back up again Vaas was able to notify his men of their location. When the storm had calmed down enough, two pirates came to get them. It felt like in no time to Scarlett that they were walking off the small boat that took them to Vaas' private island.

Gareth had been worried sick. As soon as the vehicle stopped, the passenger side door opened and Gareth pulled her into a bear hug. Gareth said a 'Thank you' to Vaas, to which Scarlett didn't hear an answer.

After a quick trip to Monroe, she was all stitched up and checked out. Gareth escorted her tired frame into her room and she climbed under the covers. She managed to shimmy off her jeans before her body relaxed into the uncomfortable mattress, which at that point felt like heaven. Scarletts breathing was heavy. It seemed like days she was there, staring at the ceiling. She did not know if it was day or night, she felt exhausted but she could not fall asleep. She stayed in a a half conscious state, until she finally dozed off.

_x_

Scarlett was completely mortified. She had woken during some point of the night with the moon still high in the sky. Sadly by that time, she remembered every single word that had come out of her mouth since she got the antidote to the poison Citra had injected into her.

_Perhaps I could pretend not to remember_, she played with the thought as she layed awake on her bed.

She didn't know how long she was awake for, but she snapped out of her thoughts when she heard someone walking, with what she logically assumed to be some sort of a stereo, and blasting out loud electronic music.

It was an hour perhaps, after that when she decided to go after the music. Figuring it was Kip, because he was the only one who blasted that genre, or music in general, without a party and it definitely didn't sound like a party out there.

She changed into her jeans and threw on a clean tank top, making a mental note to ask Gareth about the laundry system here.

She walked through the deserted camp. It was eerie at night, with only a few men up and about. They silently eyed her from their rooftops as she passed by. Scarlett wrapped her arms around herself as the harsh chill of the night made itself known. She ended up in the middle of the camp, finally finding where the music was coming from. It was coming from the biggest warehouse in the whole camp.

However instead of finding Kip, she found Vaas. The scarred man stood next to a big piece of broken off metal, it almost three times and high as him and perhaps five times as wide, with his back facing the warehouse entrance. Moonlight was shining through the holes in the ceiling, though he had made a barrel into a fire pit casting a soft orange glow over the place. The fire pit reminded Scarlett of Citras temple and goosebumps, that had nothing to do with the chilly air, rose on her skin.

Vaas was surrounded by three dozen buckets of paint, and upon a second look Scar realized that he was painting the large piece of metal in front of him. The Pirate King was splattered with paint and blood. His lips held a half gone cigarette and his head bobbed along to the electric beat.

"Hey." Scarlett said, in the moment of silence when the song changed.

Vaas looked over his shoulder and lazily waved at her with a paintbrush. "What the fuck you doing here?"

She shrugged. "I thought you were Kip." A moment later Scarlett walked toward him, stopping at a table which was covered with paint buckets. "I didn't think you were the artistic kind."

Vaas turned around and switched the bucket in his hand. Scarlett caught his eyes and his pupils were smaller than she had ever seen. Her lips parted in shock as she realized that Vaas was on some hard drugs.

"You're high."

Vaas' eyebrows shot up in surprise. He looked at her like two dicks had just grown out of her head. "_Mina_, you have never seen me sober."

"Never?" Scarlett was shocked. "Honestly not once."

"Never." Vaas shook his head.

_x_

She'd had some rum and a few cigarettes. The two had been hanging out for a few hours. Scarlett found out that she had been asleep for a solid 24 hours. She'd also found out that Vaas only painted when he couldn't sleep, and also that he didn't sleep very often and when he did he only slept a few hours.

Scarlett sat on the table, handing Vaas different paints and giving her opinion on the piece. At certain points she even got up to take the paintbrush from him and paint herself, when he didn't catch onto the idea of what she meant and suggested.

The slight buzz from the rum made even her bob along to the electronic music, that she never was fond of. Nothing was spoken between them about what happened in the bunker, though the memories burned both of their minds.

"Fucking hell, I need to kill someone." Vaas' hands were twitching and he drew back the glass of liquid in his hands.

Scar took that as her cue to get the fuck out of there. "I'll leave you to that."

"Wait a fucking moment mina." Vaas said and grabbed a hold of her elbow, spinning her around to face him.

Before she could register anything else, Vaas had pulled her lips onto his. His hand was twisted in her hair at the nape of her neck, the other went to her waist to pull her into him. By instinct one of her hands went to his chest, the other to the back of his neck and she raised onto her tiptoes.

He kissed her like he was a starving man and she was food - ravenous, almost ferocious. His rough lips moved with skill and Scarlett, by instinct, responded to him. It felt like her soul was on fire, her senses heightened and pure, raw lust was coursing through her veins. When Vaas' tongue entered her mouth she let out an involuntary moan and as a response his hand tightened on her waist, crushing her tightly against his hard chest.

He tasted like cigarettes and rum. A shiver ripped it way though her spine as the tips of Vaas' fingers slipped underneath her tank top and touched a silver of a skin on her back. Both of Scars arms went around Vaas' neck, but all too soon he pulled away.

Her knees were weak and if she were able to focus on anything else than his lips and how they felt, she would have been thankful that his hand was on her waist because otherwise she wouldn't be standing up. She was out of breath and panting slightly, when she opened her eyes she saw a smirking Vaas.

He winked at her, pulled out his handgun and strolled out of the warehouse like the cock of the walk, while shouting something about rejects.

The reality of what just happened came crashing down to her.

She couldn't believe that she had let him kiss her, albeit that it was pretty much one of the best kisses of her life... if not _the_ best, but she would never admit that. It bought up every single kind of attraction she had felt, that she had tried to bury.

She was losing control and that scared her. She wasn't good with things she couldn't control. She had to have a good amount of control in every aspect of her life, mostly her work and partners. This contract with Hoyt was nothing like she had ever done before. Usually she just put a bullet into someone after having a couple of drinks with the victim. She had gotten distracted and lost control, her curiosity toward Vaas being one of the main causes.

Anger started boiling in her and she grabbed a bucket of paint and threw it all onto the large slab of metal, leaving a red streak throughout Vaas' painting and pretty much ruining it.

"Fuck you, Montenegro."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**_Marino, wahine taitamariki. Marino. Inumia. - _Calm, young woman. Calm. Drink. [Maori]**

**_Koe e rongoa. Kikokiko me te wairua._ - You will heal. Flesh and the spirit (soul). [Maori]**

**If the translations are wrong (I'd be surprised if they're right), then feel free to message me about it.**

**What else did I have to talk about? Oh yes.**

**The bunker that they were in is the one where you get Swinji's Letter (Co-ordinates - X:784,6 Y:746,8).**

**Another thing. I made an 8tracks playlist for Vaas and Scar (Who have been given the ship name of 'Vaaslett' by a certain group of people). The link is on my profile, because once upon a time you couldn't put links here and I'm not bothered to see if you can now or not.**

**Last thing, I hope. Is that is anyone at all interested to see ScarxVaas AU's?**

**Review. Add to favourites and alerts. And again, review.**

**Reviews are definitely not better than kissing Vaas, but we'll have to get by.**

**Adiós amigos.**

**-Max**


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